Do you deep fry your turkey, or have leftover grease drippings you don’t know what to do with?
Don’t pour them down the drain, as now you can recycle them.
The Regional Waste Reduction office, in partnership with McLeod’s Byproducts of Armstrong, has set up a program for residents to be able to dispose of their leftover household cooking oils and congealed grease at either the Westside Residential Disposal and Recycling Center in West Kelowna, or at the Glenmore Landfill in Kelowna.
Waste reduction facilitator Rae Stewart says cooking oils and grease from roasting, frying and baking turkeys, chickens and other meats can collect in and clog your drains-and harm the environment in the process.
“You don’t want to pour this stuff down your drain, it can congeal, block your pipes, and create a real mess,” Stewart said.
“Dumping it in your yard isn’t a good option either, it’s harmful to the environment—when it rains the oily residue runs off into the storm drain, eventually reaching our waterways without treatment.
If you have large volumes of cooking oil, you can pour it into the receptacles provided at the Westside Recycling Center or Glenmore Landfill.
If you have congealed grease, it’s recommended you put it in a metal can or container and drop the whole metal container into the recycling receptacle provided.
As a reminder, Stewart says don’t place anything other than cooking oil and kitchen grease into the recycling containers provided—i.e. no petroleum oil such as motor oil, food items, plastic containers, or garbage.
Brian Scott, plant manager with McLeod’s Byproducts, says your repurposed kitchen leftovers will end up as a food source all over again.
“Once the cooking oils and grease are collected, we mechanically remove the solids and moisture, heat the oils at a very high temperature, then stabilize them with an antioxidant,” Scott said.
“We then sell the finished product to feed mills where they formulate it into various feeds for chicken, turkey and hogs.
If you must toss your kitchen oils and grease, here are a few simple tips to follow:
• Make sure to put them in a heat resistant container with a sealable lid, then throw in trash
• Or mix with unscented kitty litter, sawdust or sand to solidify the oil first and then dispose
• Or store the oil for later use, oil can be kept for up to six months and reused, first strain then store in the freezer.
For more information, check out regionaldistrict.com/recycle.