Knowing important animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants basics can save restaurant owners time and money. People use the word grease interchangeably with fats and oils, all of which are animal byproducts used in cooking. The improper disposal of animal fats and oils can damage sewage systems, resulting in large fines for commercial kitchens.

With new technology in alternative fuels, recycling animal fat and oil can be a profitable venture for restaurants. Recycling grease is also an environmentally friendly option for restaurants rather than sending the discarded grease to a landfill. Without knowing the right terminology, restaurant owners may struggle to find the proper recycling equipment and services. When learning animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants basics, consider the following.

1. Learn information frequently used in restaurant fat recycling.

2. Know that rendering is an important animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants key term.

3. Read about the advantages of grease traps and grease recovery devices.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Know what FOG means in relation to restaurant oil recycling

FOG is an acronym for fats, oils and greases. Oil and grease are byproducts of animal fat, and the acronym FOG often describes animal fat and oil recycling equipment and services. Many municipalities offer a FOG program to help commercial restaurants properly recycle their animal fat and oils.

I recommend: Read more about FOG management practices at the City of Los Angeles Stormwater Program. Notice the list of foods that most commonly lead to FOG in the sewer systems. For tips on managing FOG, visit Food Service Warehouse.

Learn about the rendering process in restaurant oil disposal

Companies that offer restaurant fat recycling services are called rendering companies. Rendering is the process of turning discarded fats, oils and greases into useful products, including soap, paint, toothpaste, explosives, lubricants, varnishes and animal feeds. Many rendering companies provide restaurants with FOG storage containers and weekly pick-ups.

I recommend: Learn more about the rendering process by visiting the National Renderers Association. Read an article about rendering at California Green Solutions. The article discusses thieves who target restaurants that participate in fat recycling. National By-Products provides a step-by-step guide to what services a rendering company offers.

Review fat recycling equipment grease traps

Federal and local plumbing codes require commercial restaurants to use grease traps, also called grease interceptors. Grease traps are an important step in oil disposal for restaurants. These devices cool and catch FOG while allowing water to pass into the sewage system. A grease trap then contains the FOG until someone moves it into the recycling storage container.

I recommend: To see a photograph of a grease trap and learn more about how these devices work, visit Commercial Plumbing Supply. Read more about buying the correct grease trap and properly maintaining it at Natural Environmental Systems.

Recognize grease recovery devices as a useful fat recycling tool

Profitable animal fat recycling for restaurants can increase with the use of a grease recovery device. These devices continuously separate the FOG from water resulting in clean yellow grease rather than dirty brown grease. Biodiesel companies purchase yellow grease for the use in alternative fuels.

I recommend: PM Engineer offers a description of how a grease recovery device functions as well as a photograph of a unit. To see a photograph of an installed grease recovery system, visit Water Online.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Large grease traps typically require a professional restaurant oil recycling company to regularly pump out and clean the traps.

Grease is a fact of food service life, so if you're wondering what to do with restaurant fat, recycle it. It's never been easier to find restaurant fat recycling equipment and services that will not only keep your kitchen clean and your business in compliance with waste disposal regulations, but also give you the satisfaction of improving the environment.

Restaurant fat recycling is big business. The treated products of animal fat recycling for restaurants and restaurant oil disposal show up in everything from paint to animal feed, face powder to adhesive tape. And restaurant oil recycling plays a huge role in the development of biodiesel fuels that offer a cheaper, cleaner alternative to petroleum products.

If for no other reason, set up a restaurant fat recycling regimen to save yourself money. With cities like New York experiencing more than 500 sewer blockages a year from improper restaurant oil disposal, most municipalities now impose hefty fines for not collecting and recycling grease. To start or expand your restaurant fat recycling program:

1. Purchase restaurant fat recycling equipment.

2. Contract with a service that provides fat disposal for restaurants.

3. Explore biodiesel as a way to capitalize on recycled restaurant grease.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Collect used cooking oil and fats with restaurant fat recycling equipment

Find grease traps and other restaurant oil recycling equipment to comply with city waste disposal codes. Grease traps filter oil and grease from your water disposal lines and keep it out of sewer systems. The collected grease can be contributed to restaurant fat recycling programs.

I recommend: Thermaco's Big Dipper grease trap recovery and removal products remove grease from your wastewater flow, filtering out the water to make trapped grease 100% recyclable. The International GRD Grease Recovery Device uses a thermostat to keep oils and fats from congealing; it filters and stores oil and grease for recycling without human intervention. See other restaurant fat recycling equipment at Grease Trap World, a division of Restaurant Equipment World. If you're on the business side of animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants, find grease collection trucks for sale at KeeVac.

Contract with an animal fat recycling service for restaurant oil disposal

Rendering companies provide animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants. When you contract with a service that provides oil disposal for restaurants, the company will arrange for pickup or pumping out of used cooking oils, yellow grease (animal fats) and fats collected in grease traps. Rendering companies prepare the products of fat recycling for reuse.

I recommend: MOPAC offers computerized pickup routing as well as emergency restaurant fat recycling; they'll handle all the paperwork you need to show compliance with waste disposal laws. Darling International Inc. specializes in cooking oil disposal for restaurants. Valley Proteins collects and recycles cooking oils for biodiesel and other uses; they also provide animal fat recycling for restaurants. National By-Products, LLC supplies its own patented Bulk Klean storage containers for sanitary storage and collection of fats for recycling.

Look into biodiesel as the future of restaurant oil recycling

With petroleum prices spiraling, biodiesel looks like a great solution to more than just the problem of oil disposal for restaurants. Recycling used cooking oils and converting them to biofuels doubles the environmental benefit.

I recommend: Check out Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel, a patented process for converting the products of restaurant oil recycling into biodiesel. If you want to try do-it-yourself restaurant fat recycling, explore Home Biodiesel Kits. Grease Works! offers supplies for converting cars to run on biodiesel fuels made from restaurant waste oils.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Get bids from at least three companies offering animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants. The restaurant oil disposal industry is highly competitive, and you should compare bids from local as well as national rendering services.

Can restaurant oil recycling save the environment and replace Americans' dependence on foreign oil? Some people think so. All that deep fat fryer grease left over after cooking a batch of fries can be recycled, along with animal fat kitchen waste. And some companies would be willing to pay you to haul it away.

Training your employees on the benefits of restaurant oil disposal and other recycling efforts is a good place to start. Once you've fully developed your program, you'll also need to train them on the recycling process with a focus on safety as the highest priority. As a restaurant manager or owner, you'll also want to receive proper training from waste management professionals to ensure your program's effectiveness.

Consider the following methods of training on your restaurant recycling program:

1. Provide visual forms of information on the benefits of fat recycling.

2. Come up with quizzes and other training exercises to help your staff learn more about animal fat recycling for restaurants.

3. Perform a hands-on run-through of the recycling process for animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants education and training.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get restaurant industry resources on fat disposal for restaurants

Industry websites focusing on green solutions offer resources for training your employees in animal fats and oils recycling for restaurants.

I recommend: The Green Restaurant Association is a leader in providing resources for sustainable food service operations; check out their online movie on how to become a Certified Green restaurant, which includes training for restaurant fat recycling. The Green Plan website offers a wealth of links to downloadable training resources in a variety of formats.

Obtain professional training resources for your restaurant fat recycling program

Professional training resources for animal fats and oils recycling for restaurants are available online and through in-person courses for restaurant managers and food service personnel.

I recommend: The Water Environment Federation, in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency, offers a Fats, Oils and Grease (FOG) Management Training Course for food service and kitchen personnel in various US locations. Check out the online FOG Commercial Program available from Clean Water Services of OR.

Look to local utility and waste management resources for restaurant fat recycle programs

Your local health or waste management district, public utilities and water board can be the best source of free online oil recycling training and education resources. These resources are especially valuable because they're tailored to compliance with local ordinances.

I recommend: JEA, the electric utility of Jacksonville, FL, offers a variety of FOG Reduction Program resources as downloadable PDFs. The City of Virginia Beach provides extensive educational resources for food service employees, including a downloadable manual for the operation of grease interceptors.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Your employees may be more willing to change daily routines and get on board with your restaurant oil recycling initiatives if you educate them on the benefits of the recycling program. Provide some fun incentives in the training and initial implementation phase to recognize quality workmanship.

If you're in the restaurant business, handling the disposal of used fats, oils and grease is a fact of life. In the past, the concern was limited to keeping drains free of clogs, but as the environmental concerns associated with wastewater have become more widely known, you're most likely subject to strict regulations concerning your handling of these wastes. Fortunately, animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants has emerged as a win-win situation. Removing used fats, oils and grease from wastewater and landfills helps the environment, and restaurant owners profit by selling used oils and fats to renderers for recycling. Here are some of the key terms you need to know about animal fat and oil recycling for restaurants.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

FOG (fat, oils, grease) recycling

The acronym FOG (fats, oils, grease) is often used in referring to materials related to restaurant waste treatment and recycling. Most municipalities and states have policies regulating how restaurants carry out FOG recycling.

I recommend: Read an overview of FOG recycling from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Grease trap

A grease trap, also known as an interceptor, is a device that filters animal fats, oils and other greasy waste from a restaurant's wastewater. In many cases, the filtered grease may be collected and rendered or recycled.

I recommend: Grease Trap World describes several models of interceptor for restaurant use.

Yellow grease

The term yellow grease can refer either to used vegetable oils from restaurant deep fryers or to the purified product of recycling these used oils. Recycled yellow grease is a common ingredient in animal feeds, and is increasingly valuable as an ingredient in biofuels.

I recommend: The U.S. Department of Energy describes a Wisconsin paper company's use of yellow grease as an alternative fuel.

Rendering

Restaurant animal fat and oil recycling is just one segment of the rendering industry, which processes inedible animal byproducts and restaurant waste into usable materials. Rendering serves an environmental purpose by helping to keep these waste materials out of landfills and water supplies.

I recommend: Read about the environmental aspects of rendering at the National Renderers Association.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel produced by combining alcohol with purified vegetable oils. Like ethanol, which is obtained from fermented corn, biodiesel is considered a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based fuels. Recycled vegetable oils from restaurant fryers are a prime source of biodiesel, and renderers will pay restaurants for this collected waste material.

I recommend: Biofuel Guide offers a comparison of biodiesel and ethanol.

Siphoners

As fuel prices rise, the demand for biofuels also rises, and the price paid by recyclers for used restaurant oils goes up, too. Siphoners are thieves who illegally siphon used restaurant oils from the outdoor tanks where they are kept for collection by authorized renderers, who are under contract to the restaurant. Siphoning has caused many restaurant owners to beef up security around what would once have been considered garbage.

I recommend: Read more about siphoners in a 2008 New York Times article.