Your food business is going to generate tens, if not hundreds, of gallons of used cooking oil (UCO) every week. This can be too much to handle and if it is left unattended, it could cause rodents to invade your business, pose a serious personal injury risk and make your premises unhygienic. However, there is a way to get this off your hands, and this is by utilizing the best used cooking oil collection services.
If you are going into the fast food business, you have to start with the basics. For instance, knowing where your used cooking oil will go is very important. This is why you should identify a good used fryer oil collection service. Letting professionals handle the used fryer oil from your business has environmental as well as economic benefits.
Off the tip of your fingers, here are some of the benefits you get from letting professionals take care of your waste cooking oil:
● Keeps your business compliant
● You get secure storage containers
● You get financial compensation
● Safe for the environment
● It makes your customers happy
● Creating employment
● Enriches animal feeds
And here, we shall look at these benefits in deeper detail:
Used cooking oil collection services keep your business compliant
One of the things that the public health inspectors will look at is how you dispose of your used cooking oil. You are required to keep it out of the kitchen sinks, so that it does not find its way into the sewer lines. Also, the grease that will eventually escape and find its way into the sinks must be captured in the F.O.G (fats, oils, and grease) interceptor. This device is installed inside or outside the kitchen.
If the degraded fryer oil is not disposed of properly, it could bring compliance issues. It can also pose a serious health risk to your customers, because it is a magnet for microbes. If such microbes find their way into your food, you could face class action litigation, and closure of business.
Used cooking oil also attracts rodents, which bring all manner of bacteria into your restaurant.
You get secure storage containers
When your business is producing copious amounts of degraded fryer oil, it can be hard for the kitchen staff to handle all of it.
If you do not work with a cooking oil recycling company, you will have to buy storage containers. Such may not be of the best quality, and if a kitchen employee pours hot oil into the containers, the plastic can warp.
Instead of trial and error gimmicks in your kitchen, get premium quality containers from a recycling company.
Because degraded fryer oil contains food particles, it can produce a pungent smell when the food material starts rotting. However, the containers that the used oil recycling company provides will come with tight lids. They will contain the smell so well.
Of course, it is the duty of the kitchen staff to collect all the oil, pour it into the provided containers and cover them up, awaiting collection.
The used fryer oil can be dangerous if it is spilled on the floor. It poses a serious risk of falls and injuries.
The recycling company provides the storage containers free of charge. This frees up a lot of space in the kitchen. Besides, having these containers makes the used oil so easy to manage. You can prevent spills, and thus reduce the cleaning time significantly.
You get financial compensation
Imagine being paid for waste cooking oil that would otherwise have gone to the landfills. Not only do you get better storage containers, but you also get paid for your degraded cooking oil.
Please note that for you to be paid for your waste cooking oil, it has to meet certain purity standards. For instance, its free fatty acids level must be no higher than 10 percent. Also, its moisture and impurity level must not be higher than 2 percent.
The used cooking oil collection companies cannot recycle the oil to biodiesel if it contains these impurities. This is why it is important to follow the collection and storage guidelines of the recycling company that is handling your oil.
To get paid, ensure your used fryer oil is free of contamination. Having impurities or water affects the whole batch from your kitchen, and you will not be paid.
It is safe for the environment
Recycling your UCO is not only good for your business, but it is also very beneficial to the environment. By recycling, you ensure that none of the oil gets into the sewer systems, in effect preventing backflows, blockages and spillage of sewage into the streets.
Even if the oil does not get into the sewer system, it would still end up in the landfills. To make the world a better place, just play your small part, by ensuring that none of the oil gets into the sewer system.
Another way that recycling your used fryer oil benefits the environment is that the oil is processed into biodiesel. This can be used to power trucks, trains, farm machinery, and other things. It causes less emissions.
Customers love businesses that recycle
Today, everyone is conscious of the need to save the environment from carbon emissions. Thus, many people are more likely to support business that show some form or other of environmental responsibility.
If you are recycling your used cooking oil, make sure you let your customers know. According to an article that ran in the Harvard Business Review in 2019, most people support businesses that align with their values.
With the world becoming increasingly aware of the need to safeguard the environment, you will get more loyal supporters if you are big on recycling.
Creation of employment
As of 2023, close to 4000 people were directly employed in the cooking oil recycling industry. There are thousands more people that are employed indirectly, and this number can only grow.
As more people get into the used fryer oil recycling bandwagon, there will be more job opportunities. Besides, when a cooking oil recycling company sets base in a certain place, the opportunities it brings improve the economic status of the community.
Protects your business from unnecessary repair costs
By engaging a used cooking oil collection service, you protect your business from unnecessary risks. Just ensure that no oil ever gets into the sinks, and there will be no clogging issues in your kitchen plumbing.
While the oil is liquid and can get down the drains, when it gets into contact with the drain pipes, it starts to solidify and form residue on the pipes. Eventually, this buildup reduces the diameter of the pipes, and leads to clogging.
Getting a plumber out for a couple of hours to remove the clogging can eat into your revenue. Besides, if the oil is getting down your sinks, it means it is also getting into the sewerage system. This causes reputational damage, and can also attract fines from the municipal authorities.
Animal feed additive
UCO recyclers use some of the cooking oil to enrich the flavor of the animal feeds. The oil is also a good source of calories, and it boosts the nutritional value of animal feed.
It has been established that animals can get enough nutrients and calories from a smaller amount of food if it has been enriched with used fryer oil.
Dog, chicken, rabbit, cow, horse, and pig feed are enriched using waste cooking oil. You can confirm with your company of choice to know how they recycle the waste oil.
What you need to do right away!
You need to get in touch with our customer service team at Grease Collection. Here, we offer tailor-made services for small, medium and big food business to collect, recycle and repurpose their waste cooking oil. Our used cooking oil collection services are geared towards making your business, and the earth greener. If you are a new business, we may have a special rebate benefit for you. Get in touch today.
