The Connection Between Used Cooking Oil and Climate Change

In the heart of every restaurant’s bustling kitchen lies an unexpected treasure: used cooking oil. Every crunchy french fry, mozzarella stick, and piece of crispy chicken generates cooking oil. But this oil’s journey doesn’t have to end when it leaves the fryer. Recycling your restaurant’s used cooking oil isn’t just a way to address your waste problems - it can help fight climate change.

Consider the fact that kitchens in hotels and restaurants generate about three billion pounds of used cooking oil each year, according to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). Not only that, but in the United States restaurants generate about 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste annually. That’s a lot of waste.

Right now, the potential of used cooking oil has never been higher. What’s not commonly known is that used cooking oil can be transformed into renewable plastics and lower-emission renewable fuels, like renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), part of a…