San Francisco is known for its fog—and may soon be known for what it does with its FOG. That’s fats, oils, and grease generated from cooking, both domestically and commercially. The city is funding a new program that will convert these substances into biofuel for the municipal fleet. The Greasecycle program may be the wave of the future.
The post “Donuts to Diesel: SFGreasecycle” by Thy Tran of Bay Area Bites explores this program and the pros and cons of grease recycling. Whether or not biofuel is an easy solution (there is controversy regarding emissions), the issue of FOG disposal is a bit of a headache for everyone.
As Tran points out, “New landfill regulations prohibiting the burying of liquid fats and municipal directives on hazardous waste, animal by-products and waste oils make FOG disposal increasingly complex and expensive for restaurants and catering companies.” The city is concerned with FOG being dumped into the sewer system. As San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Susan Leal says, “It’s sort of like a heart attack in our sewers. It’s like a blocked artery.” (Check out the article for some nasty visuals).
Because Canada already showed us what happens when you don’t do a good job of cleaning up grease. You’ve been warned.
well…i’m not from san fran…but i’m from buffalo ny. That is a very good plan. My name here is TDIprincess… the TDI stands for Turbo Diesel it is an 01 VW Jetta that has a 1.9T Diesel engine. My husband is a car techy guy. (i.e. he just replaced the timing belt on it)… we are looking to once we get a house (and garage) to do a conversion kit so that our Jetta runs on biofuel also.. it is a good way to recycle the oil