What can be recycled?
Vegetable oil is used in the catering operations. Catering outlets make their own arangements for disposal as this is usually carried out as part of the fryer cleaning contract. Waste Transfer Notes must be sent to the Nic Dent, Waste and Recycling Manager recycling@imperial.ac.uk
Oil is lighter than water and tends to spread into thin and broad membranes which hinder the oxygenation of water. Because of this, a single litre of oil can contaminate as much as 1 million litres of water.
Used cooking oils must never be disposed of to surface water drains, or discharged to the foul sewer without prior approval from the water company. Oil can congeal on pipes creating blockages.
Under the Animal By-Product Regulations it is illegal for waste cooking oil to be used as an ingredient in animal feed.
Oil should be placed in a sealed container and recycled. It can be used to produce soap and biodiesel.
Waste hierarchy
What happens to this waste stream?
0% reused
100% recycled
0% energy recovery
0% incinerated
0% landfill
Cooking oil waste stream
Cooking oil represents <1% of our total waste.
Your responsibilities
- Any oil being stored must have a secondary container, a bund (drip tray), to prevent any leaks having impact on the environment.
- The volume of the bund must be: 10% of a single container, either 25% of the total being stored in multiple containers or 110% of the largest tank; whichever is the greater.
- If the primary containers are hydraulically linked, but in separate containment systems, containment of at least 110% of the total volume stored is required at each location.
Where do I put it?
- All Catering outlets on site have a oil storage area within a bund in a covered area to protect from rain.
Who removes it?
- A specialist contractor collects from all the storage areas on site.
What happens then?
- The vegetable oil is usually converted to bio-diesel or filtered and resold to catering companies.
How green is this waste stream?
- The containers in which the oil was first delivered are reused.
- Recycling ensures that the oil is dealt with appropriately and not released into the environment.