New household cooking oils recycling to biofuels launched

In Scotland, the Scotland Borders Council launched a new service that allows the public to recycle their leftover cooking oils. The new service will see the collected oil cleaned, filtered and processed into biofuel, for use as vehicle fuel or for power and energy generation.

The service is now available at all seven community recycling centers in the Borders and has the backing of Scottish Water, who last year launched a campaign asking the public not to put cooking oil or grease down the sink as it was causing unpleasant internal sewage flooding and polluting local rivers, coastal waters and beaches.

The previous alternative was placing the oil into a general waste bin, but this increases the amount of waste sent to landfill and therefore pollution, as well as increasing costs for the taxpayer.