Green Restaurant 'Grease' a Good Thing

by Diana Nelson Jones (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) ... Ting Yen stores about 35 pounds of used oil a day in the basement of Sushi Fuku on Oakland Avenue, including contributions from the owner of Oishii Bento across the street. He had previously contracted with a private company that paid him for the oil but he liked GTECH's local pitch.
...The truck picks up oil every week and delivers it to Fossil Free Fuel in Braddock, which has it recycled to fuel vehicles that have been converted from diesel. Refuel Oakland is a piece of GTECH's larger Refuel program of collecting waste oil from restaurants throughout the area.
...When it is rid of impurities and moisture, the oil is processed into what rendering companies call yellow grease, he said. In addition to being turned into biodiesel, it is used to enhance animal feed for feed lots and farms and as fuel in boilers.
With so much market demand, why is GTECH doing this?
Ms. Innamorato said GTECH's interest is in keeping the waste as a local resource and to help green social enterprises. "Plus we can generate revenue for our organization through the sale of the donated oil, and it goes back into our other program areas," she said. "The other part is the community piece." READ MORE