News

March 20, 2009

Liquid Savings

If there’s a downside to the fryer-oil-recovery program now underway in Westchester County, N.Y., participants say they’ve yet to find it.

The county-run effort has saved Westchester taxpayers enough on fuel for snowplows and other government vehicles to prompt an experiment with using the restaurant waste to heat administration buildings.

And restaurateurs who’ve been spared the expense of paying to have their oil carted away say it’s a boon they wish on peers everywhere. “It’s great for restaurants, and it’s very doable because there’s not much to it,” says Koshy Chacko, proprietor of the Fair Deal Cafe in White Plains, N.Y. “It doesn’t require any capital.”

Chacko, who also serves as president of the New York State Restaurant Association and is active in its Westchester chapter, estimates he’s saving at least $1,000 a year through the program.

“I was paying $86 every time I had my oil picked up,” says Chocka, adding that 100 gallons of oil had to be carted away at least once a month.

Now, he says, “They bring me a 55-gallon drum with a funnel on it. We put the old oil in there every time we change the oil in our fryers. When it’s full, I call the county. They pick it up and give me a new drum.”

Although programs that convert restaurants’ used fryer oil into biodiesel are now commonplace, most are run by commercial enterprises rather than county, state or local governments. In that respect, Chacko says, Westchester’s initiative may be the first of its kind.

The county’s Web site lists 53 foodservice facilities that are now participating in the program, which was officially announced on February 3, 2009. The early converts contributed enough oil during the effort’s pilot stage to fuel seven vehicles—including a tractor—that were modified to burn just the recovered fat.

With more oil now being contributed, the county is mixing the grease with diesel fuel, a blend that requires no retrofitting of a vehicle’s engine, and using it in 125 county cars and trucks. Officials peg the savings at $25,000 for every 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel they’re spared from buying. The county also notes that biodiesel generates about 80 percent less carbon dioxide.

Both restaurateurs and the county would like to see the program grow. The county restaurant association is publicizing the recovery effort in mailings to members and awareness is also spreading by word of mouth, according to Chacko. In addition, the county sent out letters to all 3,500 restaurants in Westchester and health inspectors are distributing information in the course of their restaurants visits.

“It’s only a few months old, but I believe we’ve already collected something like 7,000 pounds of used oil,” says Adele Dowling, a spokeswoman for County Executive Andrew J. Spano, a champion of the program. “We were able to put the program together quickly because it’s really very simple.”

The county had been offering for some time to take used oil from restaurants free of charge, but the establishments had to bring it to a county facility. Some of the concessionaires operating within government facilities trucked their oil to the depositories, “but most restaurants really didn’t want to do it, acknowledged Dowling.

The county had retrofitted two of its trucks to burn the oil, rechristening them Veggie Vans to call attention to their greener power system. “We started thinking, who has the oil we need? And the answer was obviously restaurants.” So the county decided to start picking up the waste instead of waiting for it to be carted to them.”

“The county came to us and we responded immediately,” says Chacko. “Everything was put together very quickly.”

The parties involved with the program say it’s continuing to evolve and grow. Chocka, for instance, says he may ask the county to provide decals that contributing restaurants can post in their windows to alert the public about their environmental efforts.

Meanwhile, county officials have voiced plans to use the oil-diesel blend in as many as 350 additional vehicles. “Now we’re going to try to use it for heating buildings,” says Dowling.

“All of that would’ve been thrown away -- the restaurants would have had to pay to have it taken away,” said Dowling. “It’s good for the environment, but it’s also a significant savings for them and for us.”