Recycle your cooking oil for biofuel research at the Gobble Grease Toss

This holiday season, University of Kentucky researchers want to recycle your used cooking oil and study it.

It’s part of the 14^th annual Gobble Grease Toss held on Black Friday. If you’re frying a turkey this Thanksgiving you can drop off your used cooking oil for free at Redwood Cooperative School, located at 166 Crestwood Drive in Lexington. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24.

The annual event allows Lexington residents to divert hundreds of gallons of cooking oil that would otherwise end up in the trash. Cooking oil should never be poured down sink drains, as it can clog pipes in both your home and the sewer system.

Cooking oil that is collected will be used for biofuel research through a community partnership with the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), Kelley Green Biofuel, Redwood Cooperative School and the City of Lexington.

“The Gobble Grease Toss connects our research to the community by giving us access to a realistic waste feedstock, namely, used oil from people’s homes. The partnership with Kelley Green Biofuel ensures that the entirety of the oil collected is converted to fuel since CAER’s processing capacity is limited,” said Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, Ph.D., associate director of CAER’s Sustainable and Alternative Fuels (SAF) group and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry in the UK College of Arts and Sciences.

The students and families at Redwood Cooperative School are looking forward to co-hosting the Gobble Grease Toss on their campus for the seventh time.

“Each year, the Gobble Grease Toss allows our students a way to engage the community in sustainable practices,” said Sarah Cummins, head of Redwood. “They understand that our daily choices have an impact on the environment and their future, and we enjoy witnessing the capacity they have for sharing that knowledge with the greater community. Our students will be there to welcome you, gather your used cooking oil, and help everyone be a little greener this holiday season.”

The Gobble Grease Toss is free for all Fayette County residents (no businesses, please). You can bring cooking and vegetable oil only (no food or motor oil) in a disposable, hard-sided container with a lid to prevent spills. Do not bring cooking oil in a bag.

Please have your container in your trunk. Remain in your car and a volunteer will remove the oil for you.

If you cannot make it to the Gobble Grease Toss, you can properly dispose of cooking oil by hardening it in the refrigerator and placing it in your trash.

For more information on the Gobble Grease Toss, call LexCall at 3-1-1 or 859-425-2255 or visit www.LexingtonKY.gov/GobbleGreaseToss.