Adding A Deep Fryer To Your Restaurant Kitchen? 3 Tips For Recycling Oil
Posted on: 12 May 2015
All it takes is a look around any carnival or county fair to discover that people love to eat deep fried food. Almost anything can be deep fried, so whether you stick to traditional deep fried items like chicken or fish or you want to offer more unusual deep fried selections, like fried butter or pigs ears, you're sure to find a customer base that will appreciate it. That leaves only one problem – what to do with all of the used oil? Adding a deep fryer to your kitchen can create a whole new waste removal challenge for your kitchen. Here are some tips that can help you recycle your used oil responsibly.
Never Dump It Down The Drain
The last thing that you ever want to do is dump your used oil down the drain or garbage disposal. When you do this, you risk the oil solidifying and clogging up your pipes. This can be disastrous enough in a home, but in a restaurant where you're using large quantities of grease, the damage can be even more catastrophic.
Even if the pipes inside your restaurant aren't affected, the sewage pipes where your wastewater goes to can become clogged with grease, and eventually burst. That means that dumping large amounts of grease down the drain can lead to sewage leaks in your area – not exactly a good advertisement for your business. There's always a better way to handle grease disposal.
See if You Can Make a Profit
Depending on where you live, you may actually be able to sell your used grease. It seems crazy; after all, usually you have to pay someone to take your waste products. But used cooking oil can be used to make biofuels, and therefore it has value even after you're done with it. As a result, a lot of different companies have gotten into the grease recycling business, and they're willing to pay restaurants 50 cents a gallon or more to pick up the old cooking oil that restaurants are throwing away.
Not only can you make some extra money, you may be able to boost your restaurant's reputation by recycling your grease for reuse as a biofuel. Ever since 2012, Asheville, NC restaurants have been required to sell their oil to recyclers in order to qualify for the Green Restaurant Association certification. A number of other cities have instituted similar requirements. Being able to advertise your restaurant as a green, ecofriendly establishment can boost your reputation in your city and help you attract new customers.
Protect Your Used Oil From Thieves
When you sign a contract with an oil recycling company to sell them your used oil, they'll provide you with a storage bin that will stay on your property, outside of the restaurant. That's where you'll store your oil until the recycling company picks it up. Just put the used oil in a container and empty it into the bin outside when you're taking out the trash.
Surprisingly, though, you may need to take steps to ensure that no one is accessing the oil bin other than you and the recycling company you've chosen. In recent years, restaurants in some areas where competition for recycling business is high have experienced oil theft. When someone steals the oil from your recycling container, your recycling company loses out on the oil they would have gotten, and you lose out on the money that they would have paid you for it. It's worth putting some security measures into place to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Try putting up some inexpensive security cameras. The prospect of being identified will dissuade most thieves, and you'll have the evidence to help catch any foolhardy thieves that do take your oil.
Once you've figured out how to dispose of the oil, you've dealt with the biggest challenge of adding a deep fryer to your restaurant. Then you can click this link, get a fryer installed, and concentrate on coming up with great new deep-fried recipes to add to your menu.
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