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Where to get used cooking oil-

There are many places to get used cooking oil from, though some are better than others are. The best oil is usually found at Chinese food restaurants. They generally use better oil, and change it more often, though this varies. Some of the worst oil for Biodiesel is found at the big fast food restaurants. Avoid them if at all possible as they usually overuse their oil, which raises the FFAs (Free Fatty Acids) in the oil, which makes it much harder to process.

Also, when considering a place to get oil from, there are several things you should consider. How often do they change their oil out (if they go longer than once a week, be wary, though it may still be useable). How much do they go through each week? What kind of pickup system do they require? Example: Will they put it back in the carboys it came in, or do you need to supply 30-55 gallon barrels etc? Do they add water to their waste oil? Sounds strange, but one of our restaurants was doing that before. Once we started picking it up they agreed to keep it out of the oil.

Ideas for where to find used oil: 

• Chinese restaurants are generally considered the best 
• Most any other restaurant will have some oil available 
• Bakeries Retirement homes (they usually have their own kitchens) 
• Hospitals 
• Schools 
• Large companies which may have their own kitchens 
• Potato chip companies (smaller companies may work with you) 
• Special events such as fairs, concerts, etc where there may be many vendors with waste oil afterwards. Go around the first day and offer to come pick up their oil at the end of the event. Or contact the event organizers to offer your services. 
• Many people fry turkeys these days so offer to pickup used oil after the holidays.
• And many more places.  Most anyplace with a kitchen is a possibility.

How to get the Oil-

Ok, you now have some ideas for where to find used oil, but now you’re wondering ‘how do I go about getting them to let me pickup their used oil’? There’s many ways to go about this, but I’ll outline a few ideas here.

Probably the best idea is to simply have lunch at a restaurant, then when you’re about finished, tell you’re waiter/waitress that you really enjoyed the meal, and may you speak with the owner or manager. If you don’t tell them you enjoyed the meal the manager is likely to come out thinking you have a complaint, which is not the way you want to start things off. Then simply explain that you are making Biodiesel for your own personal use, and you are interested in picking up their used oil on a regular basis.  Explain that you would be reliable, and you must promise to never leave them hanging with a full barrel of oil. You must also be ready to supply them with a 55-gallon drum if needed.  I’ve found that the owners seem more open to giving it to us knowing that we will only be using it for our personal use, and will be putting it to a good, environmentally friendly use.

Don’t try to lie to them about your use, but don’t offer more information than necessary either as that can just raise to many questions. One of my current sources is the owner of 6 restaurants, and they make Biodiesel from their used oil, but they had too much, so they agreed to let us pickup the oil from one restaurant. They knew we wanted it because we mailed them a postcard.

Another way I’ve had good success has been with direct mailings. You could put together a postcard or letter that says something like this. (This ‘postcard’ file is on the enclosed disk included with our printed book, in MS word format if you want to use it that way).

“Hello, my name is Joe Smith and I would like to offer a proposal which could benefit both of us. I would like to offer to begin picking up your used cooking oil to make Biodiesel with for my own personal use. I am not a business, but would promise to pickup the oil on a regular basis, and to never leave you with full containers of oil. This could save you some money if you are paying to have it picked up now, and I would be able to turn it into an environmentally friendly fuel, which will also save me some money. Biodiesel also helps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and therefore we may not have to fight as many wars one day, if we can continue to reduce our need for foreign oil. Thank you. Joe Smith 555-1234”

That’s just an idea, but you can modify it, or change it completely to suit your needs. Then just copy the addresses out of the phone book and mail them out. You might want to start with just 15-20 at a time to avoid being overwhelmed. You might only get 1-2 per mailing, but they do work for us.

You could also knock on the back door and ask for the kitchen manager, then ask them if you can collect some used oil. Or you could try just cold calling the restaurants when they are not busy.

Another option could be landfills. Some landfills may accept used cooking grease, and may let you take it off their hands.

I don’t suggest taking oil without asking. Most grease dumpsters are privately owned, and if you just take it, you are stealing. Some would argue that used oil is a waste product, or that the restaurant owner said it was ok. But that doesn’t change the fact that you are stealing. Once the oil is in their grease dumpster, or barrel, it’s no longer the restaurants property per the contract they signed with the collection company. And oil in barrels, well that might be another person like you trying to collect some oil. And you wouldn’t like it if someone stole your oil, (we’ve had it happen, and had to implement timely, and expensive theft prevention methods). So please don’t steal oil. 

Ideas for collecting used oil- 

There are many ways to collect the used oil. I can’t tell you exactly how to do it because it depends on who you are getting it from, what they need, what you have available, etc. But I can give you some ideas.

Carboys – If you will not be picking up large amounts from your supplier you might be able to get them to pour the oil back into the original carboy, or cubee containers it came in. That can be an easy way to collect it as you can just grab the carboys and load them up. But many restaurants don’t want to mess with trying to pour it back into the little containers.

5 Gallon Buckets – You could buy several 5-gallon buckets with lids and let them pour the oil into those. Then they are still small enough to just load into a car or pickup bed by hand.

55 Gallon Drums – Now we’re getting into some new areas. With these you have the potential that you will end up having to load or pump out a full 55 gallon barrel of oil. But the advantage is that you can go longer between pickups, and they have a nice opening to pour the oil into (if you give them an open head drum). I really don’t suggest a closed head drum and funnel as it makes the height to the top of the funnel to high for some, and it can be difficult and messy for them. And if they are inconvenienced, they’re likely to go back to the grease dumpster method.

Also, be prepared to have twice as many drums as locations to pick up. You’ll need to take an empty one with you each time you go to pick up a full one if you swap them out. If you pump it, you won’t need as many.

How to get oil out of a 55 gallon drum- 

Pumping the oil out of the barrel can be tricky. In the winter you may not be able to pump it at all. In that case you can either dolly it away, scoop it out, or heat it up before pumping.

Pumping it out- In the summer this is our preferred method because it’s quick, and fairly simple, and doesn’t involve lifting 400 lb barrels of oil. We bought a gas powered water pump that can handle small solids off eBay, and it can empty a 55 gallon drum in about 1 minute. We built a setup of 2 55-gallon Polyethylene drums that we take with us when doing this. We can then pump the oil into those at the site, then empty them at the house.

Dolly it out – In the winter we do it this way, using a low to the ground trailer. But a full barrel can weigh around 400 lbs and is very heavy to load with a 2 wheeler. But it can be done. Just get a strong dolly, a ratchet strap, strong trailer ramps and air the dolly tires up all the way. Note that longer trailer ramps and a low trailer make it much easier to do. Then take help.

Lift it with a Truck Crane- You could also put a small harbor freight type truck crane in the bed of your truck or trailer and lift it in using a barrel lifting device. But others who’ve tried it report that you MUST reinforce the bed of a truck or it will bend it. And if using a trailer, you’ll want to put a jackstand under one side when lifting to avoid bending the frame, unless you’ve got a really strong trailer.

Scooping it out- Or you can scoop it out if it’s really cold and solid. Yes, it’s ok for it to solidify when it’s cold enough. And it’ll look really bad when it’s cold, but don’t worry about that if you’ve tested it and it was ok. But the scooping idea can be REALLY messy, so I don’t recommend it.

A final note about collecting oil is to be very polite and responsible. You can build good rapport by never letting their barrels overflow, cleaning up the barrels, or swapping them out now and then, and keeping the oil collection area clean. We even pick up trash in the area, that way the owners stay happy, and we show them we appreciate being able to pick up their oil. You either keep them happy, or someone else will.