Not sure what to do with used cooking oil and grease? Planning to fry a turkey for the holidays? Never put oil or grease down the drain, as it clogs sewers and creates a major problem for municipalities. Grease solidifies like cholesterol in arteries, and causes millions of dollars in remediation costs.

DieselGreen Fuels, Austin’s grease-to-biodiesel provider, has a new drop-off program designed to help residents, schools, churches and other small producers of oil to avoid dumping in landfills or sewers. Pour your oil into the container provided, or leave the container and staff will take care of it.

“This exciting new program provides another opportunity for Austinites to rethink the concept of waste,” said Lucia Athens, chief sustainability officer with the city of Austin. “Instead of trash, we can recognize that leftover cooking oil is another resource that can be captured and reused, closing the loop on human activities to make them more efficient.”

Locations: 

Ecology Action - 707 E 9th St., Austin, TX 78701 

Hours: 24/7

M S Pallets - 1713 Hydro Dr., Austin, TX 78728 

Hours: 7:30 - 4:30 Mon - Sat.

“Grease collection is a smart way to bring a renewable product to the market place in the form of biodiesel,” said Stacy Neef, executive director of the Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance, a Clean Cities coalition for Central Texas. “DieselGreen Fuels, a long-time supporter and member of the regional Clean Cities coalition, Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance, collects waste grease from numerous restaurants and now [offers] public drop-off locations. The waste grease is then processed into a high-grade biodiesel fuel product, and made available to the public at Eco-Wise on Congress Avenue in Austin, as well as fleet delivery. Waste grease is a valuable commodity and DieselGreen Fuels is providing a necessary, sustainable activity in Austin.”

DieselGreen Fuels has been providing oil recycling services to Austin businesses since 2006, and continues to keep locally sourced B100 available at the retail pump at Eco-Wise as well as for local fleets. DieselGreen is also expanding into Dallas and San Antonio in 2013.

Ecology Action has been providing recycling services to Austin for over 30 years and is now closing the loop even further by using 100 percent biodiesel for its entire fleet. The oil from this location goes to help keep fueling costs down for Ecology Action as well as saving taxpayers money by keeping fats and grease out of the sewers, preventing costly repairs.

M S Pallets recycles wood to make pallets, and repairs pallets. This reduces the overall footprint of the pallet industry, and offers an alternative to new pallets. Also, M S Pallets uses 100 percent biodiesel in its entire fleet, reducing its carbon footprint and keeping energy consumption as local as possible.