Go green on Black Friday at the Gobble Grease Toss! If you’re frying a turkey this Thanksgiving, you can recycle your used cooking oil for free on Friday, Nov. 26 at Redwood Cooperative School, 166 Crestwood Dr. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Gobble Grease Toss 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 city’s sewer system.
Cooking oil that is collected will be used for biofuel research through a community partnership with the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (UK CAER), with Kelley Green Biofuel recycling the remainder of the cooking oil.
“For many years, UK CAER has investigated the conversion of fats, oils, and greases to fuel-like hydrocarbons with the support of the National Science Foundation and UK Sustainability. The Gobble Grease Toss connects our research to the community by giving us access to 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, Program Manager with UK CAER and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the UK Department of Chemistry.
The students and families at Redwood Cooperative School are looking forward to co-hosting the Gobble Grease Toss on their campus for the sixth time. “Environmental literacy is a key tenet of our school principles, and this event provides another way for our students to learn about clean energy and environmental sustainability,” said Sarah Cummins, Head of Redwood. “They are learning that our daily choices have an impact on the environment and their future. Our Student Leadership Team will be on hand to help with this event and encourage the Lexington community be responsible about cooking oil waste this holiday season.”
The Gobble Grease Toss is free for all Fayette County residents (no businesses, please). Please have your cooking oil in a disposable container with a lid in your trunk. Remain in your car and be ready to pop the trunk lid when you arrive. 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 green trash cart.
For more information on the Gobble Grease Toss, call LexCall at 3-1-1 or (859) 425-2255 or visit lexingtonky.gov/GobbleGreaseToss.
