In the Peterborough area over 30,000 litres of used cooking oil, collected from residents has been recycled as electricity. Living Fuels, the renewable energy company collected the oil that had been left at household recycling banks. The oil is cleaned and converted into a green bio-liquid renewable fuel LF100 by the company. This is then used to produce electricity and heat.
The majority of oil was collected in Whittlesey and Wisbech centres. Head of the Cambridgeshire County Council said this has been very successful and is part of the continued effort to help the resident recycle all they can.
Their operations director said that the total amount of oil collected reached 32,000 litres since 2008 and was used to generate sufficient electricity to brew 7.5 million cups of tea or to bake over 128,000 Victoria sandwich cakes.
He also explained that used cooking oil is a major problem if not recycled. It can block drains causing slow drainage throughout the house and of course the water treatment companies are the last ones that want to deal with food waste after already having to treat all the sewage works.
Methane gas, one of the greenhouse gases, would be produced if oil was simply thrown into landfill sites via the general waste wheelie bin and if it is used on the family compost for the lawn or garden it could very easily attract rats. The effort continues and more people are encouraged to recycle their used cooking oil.
Leave a Reply