How to turn a new year's resolution into clean electricity

16 January, 2009, 0 comments

Residents in Ealing are being encouraged to add a new ‘recycling’ resolution to this year’s list and help reduce pollution, keep sewers clean and power factories with ‘green’ electricity.

You may think you have the recycling business all covered in your household, with paper, card, plastic, glass and tins all making their way through the various waste streams.

But what about used cooking oil ?

Just one litre (that’s about 1/3rd of what you’d find in your average chip pan) can be converted into a new green fuel called LF100 and produce enough clean electricity to make 240 cups of tea!

The company behind this unique conversion process is Living Fuels – part of the British group Renewable Energy Generation – and they are installing used cooking oil collection units up and down the country to give householders the means to safely dispose of used cooking oils.

Many householders currently throw used cooking oil down the sink and this causes problems for drainage and the environment. Water companies spend over -15 million each year de-clogging sewers – with Water UK registering 75% of the 200,000 blocked sewer incidents each year to fats, oils and greases.

Private householders also pay out hundreds of thousands in bills to plumbers and drainage experts.

The collection unit in place at Acton and Greenford Re-use and Recycling Centres can hold 1000 litres which will produce sufficient electricity to power one average household for a whole year.

Councillor Sue Emment, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street
Services, said: "Making the streets cleaner is one of our main priorities. We are always looking at ways we can make recycling easier for residents and our recycling rates continue to soar.

“I’m pleased that residents are making good use of the cooking oil recycling facilities and would like to congratulate them on their efforts. Throwing oil down drains blocks sewers, which can then lead to flooding, and makes waste water treatment more costly.”

Living Fuels operations director, Rob Murphy, said: "We collect the oil at no cost and as often as required. All of our vehicles have been converted to run on the LF100 fuel.

“Recycling your used cooking oil rather than throwing it down the drain could eventually lead to lower water bills from your local water company while the oil also contains significant potential energy which is wasted when it is just thrown away.”

Acton Re-use and Recycling Centre, in Stirling Road, and Greenford
Re-use and Recycling Centre, in Greenford Road, are open Mon-Sun, 8am-5pm (between 1 April-30 September) and 8am-4pm (between 1 October-31 March).

The use of used cooking oil in electricity generation reduces carbon emissions meaning that everyone can play a part in building Britain’s renewable energy capacity.

So do an extra bit for the environment and make recycling your used cooking one of this year’s resolutions.

For more information visit www.ealing.gov.uk/recycling

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