Turing Waste Oil into a Restaurant Asset

Let us be frank and just state the facts bluntly: If you are paying to have the waste oil removed from your restaurant by a professional service then you are being scammed. You may view your used cooking oil as just more garbage to be disposed of and certainly the people you are paying to remove it let you think that it is such. That is a flat lie.
Used cooking oil is a valuable commodity and one that is becoming even more so in recent years. If you are paying a service to remove your oil, you are essentially giving them money and paying them for the privilege of doing so.

Is it Really Valuable?

What you may not understand is that used cooking oil cannot just be dumped or disposed of by conventional means (not legally). It can, however, be refined and used in a number of other products. Chances are the service you use is not paying to have the oil disposed of legally. It is much more likely that they are turning around and selling your oil for prices averaging around $30 per barrel. That, of course, is money on top of that which you paid them to take it away.

Used cooking oil has been used for years as a cheap form of fuel for industrial equipment and as a key ingredient in animal foods. In more recent years more and more uses for used vegetable oil have come into common practice as the push for cleaner, more environmentally friendly fuels picks up momentum. Ingenious people have developed electric generators and household heaters that run on simple strained waste oil. You might be surprised to hear that you can even fuel a vehicle with used cooking oil. With so many uses cooking oil has become a valuable resource, not and inconvenient waste.

Shop Around

If your service is actually charging you to remove waste oil from your restaurant, fire them. If you are going to pay, use one of the full service fryer maintenance services that are springing up across the country. With those, you get something for what you pay. Those services can oftentimes reduce your oil usage by half, more than paying for the service and making them well worth using.

If you can't find one of the full-service fryer management businesses in your area, then shop around for removal services that pay for oil. Remember, most of these businesses are making $30 a barrel off of your oil. It is not uncommon for them to be willing to pay up to $10 a barrel. There is no reason that your oil shouldn't be mutually beneficial instead of a burden.

Dropping Services

You might also consider dropping your use of waste oil services all together. If you are willing to devote the time to your business and operate a location within reasonable distance from a rendering plant or recycling facility why not take the oil in yourself and get the full price? Understandably, this isn't an option for all business owners. Time is money and locations are not always easily accessible. However, for those able to, the potential to recoup a big chunk of your cooking oil costs is there.

Forming relationships within the community with those who are embracing the eco-friendly switch to waste oil biofuels can also provide a means of getting rid of your waste oil without having to pay. By allowing your community to benefit from your waste oil you are building a stronger connection and improving your image locally. That can be worth its weight in "greasy gold" in and of itself.