How to Recycle Fryer Oil

Cooking oil recycling companies take care of recycling over 10 million gallons of oil from food establishments. A booming industry, fryer oil recycling has experienced a dramatic upshot in the last five years. To put it in perspective, the restaurant oil recycling industry reached a revenue of five billion dollars in 2018 alone.

Restaurants, cafés, grocery stores and other commercial kitchens are faced with surplus cooking oil waste every day. Rather than throw the excess oil down the kitchen drain and clog up municipal sewer lines, food establishment managers are required to recycle their kitchen’s leftover fryer oil.

With 309 businesses in the commercial cooking oil collection and recycling industry in the United States at the present time, commercial kitchen owners are rarely at a loss when it comes to finding a convenient waste oil recycler to collect and recycle their discarded fryer oil.

Why should commercial kitchens recycle fryer oil?

Fryer oils give various foods a crisp texture and plenty of incredible flavor, but these cooking oils are harmful when haphazardly thrown down the kitchen drain. A commercial kitchen’s huge daily output of fryer oil is no friend to municipal sewer lines. Oils, when solidified, block the city sewer lines and clog the kitchen drain.

Restaurant owners who habitually toss fryer oil down the drain along with dishwater only end up with a kitchen drain that fails to drain adequately. Burdened with an unusable sink, the restaurant manager is forced to call in a plumber to unblock the pipes. Plus, frequent plumbing repairs become pricey.

The sink’s garbage disposal also fails to efficiently break down oils enough to allow them to pass through the pipes. The fryer oils manage to thicken deeper down the drain, where temperatures are cooler. This buildup has no flowable path and backs up into the restaurant’s plumbing.

Another disaster waiting to occur when commercial kitchens do not recycle fryer oil is a street overflowed with sewage contents. The sewer, encrusted with fatbergs (clumps of oils and fats), has nowhere to channel the sewage except back from where it originated. The resulting overflow is toxic to human health.

The local sewage treatment plant becomes crippled when thousands of gallons of oils interfere with its mechanical equipment. The government is faced with emergency spending to deal with the overflow of oils. Grease dumping is illegal in many localities, leading to thousands of dollars in fines for liable restaurant owners.

What are benefits of recycling fryer oil?

The good news about fryer oil waste is that it can be recycled. Food establishments produce over 2.5 billion gallons of cooking oil annually. Restaurant managers have plenty of opportunities to preserve the environment and avoid government fines by recycling their fryer oil waste.

Recycled fryer oils can be transformed into renewable diesel. Oil wastes are safely transported and screened for contaminants, which are removed. Water and emulsions undergo a separation process in settling tanks. These recycled oils are used in renewable diesel productions.

Considering the financial and environmental advantages of properly recycling fryer oil, food establishments should know how to best recycle their excess fryer oils. Hiring an environmental services company to haul away and recycle discarded oils is the foremost way restaurant owners can protect their businesses.

How do kitchens locate fryer oil recyclers?

A commercial kitchen manager who sees the value in recycling fryer oils will research environmental services that pick up and recycle restaurant greases. Many environmental service companies are based locally or feature cross-country networks, offering convenience to food operators nationwide.

Grease recyclers are available for numerous industries. Types of industries oil recyclers serve include restaurants, higher education, hotels, casinos and airports. Whether a business is small scale or expels thousands of gallons of oil, a grease recycler is available to cater to the business’ oil waste recycling needs.

What tasks will the oil recycler perform?

Food establishments working with oil recycling vendors should know how much excess fryer oils are produced. Depending on the level of oils, the vendor offers a holding container. Barrels vary in size, from 100-gallon bins to 300-gallon containers. The kitchen should have enough space to house the bins.

Once a contract between the restaurant and vendor is established, specialized trucks are dispatched to the commercial kitchen to collect the food operator’s excess oils. The recycling vendor removes all the disposed fryer oils without impacting the business’ daily operations.

What duties should food operators perform to facilitate recycling?

Food operators with commercial kitchens in cold climates should heat the collection containers to prevent the oils from solidifying. In order for pickups to go smoothly, the oils must be flowable. Filtered oil comes with less of a price tag, since the vendor does not have to remove food particles.

How often should food establishments schedule fryer oil collections?

Regular oil collections may be scheduled with an environmental services company that picks up and recycles grease. At a minimum, grease should be picked up every two months. Leaving fryer oils around for longer than that may result in theft of the grease, which is a tradable commodity.

Food operators are legally bound to responsibly dispose of their cooking oils. Mahoney Environmental is prepared to help you abide by local and state regulations. As a cooking oil recycler with over 65 years in the business, Mahoney Environmental will serve your business with professionalism and expertise.

We will not only recycle your commercial kitchen’s frying oils, but our trained technicians also offer professional grease trap cleanings and installation.

A food operator who partners with an environmental service like Mahoney Environmental has the chance to focus on running their commercial kitchen without worrying about oils damaging the drains or the streets surrounding the building. Mahoney Environmental offers an extensive nationwide network, making fryer oil recycling in every state a convenience.