Bins for recycled cooking oil available

The Cooking Oil Recycling (COR) Program of Buncombe County is a unique pilot project to recycle used cooking oil into biodiesel and keep oils and greases out of the waste water system. Funded by the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, the COR Program is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Sewerage District (MSD) of Buncombe County, Blue Ridge Biofuels, and Green Opportunities. A new website, www.cookingoilrecycling.org, provides the public with information on the program as well as the location of cooking oil recycling bin locations. The first of 35 recycling bins are located at the Buncombe County Landfill and at the new River District Recycling Center behind the old silo off West Haywood Road through the Hatchery Studios parking lot.

Waste cooking oils are one of the major causes of costly sewer maintenance in Buncombe County. These sewer overflows are a potential threat to the environment and take up valuable resources of the local budgets for public works.

By placing public recycling bins across Buncombe County, the COR Program seeks to keep waste oils out of the sewers and divert them to Blue Ridge Biofuels for processing into biodiesel. MSD was the first major purchaser of biodiesel in Buncombe County. and has been using biodiesel in its fleet of 85 vehicles for over seven years.