After frying chicken or sautéing vegetables, do not pour leftover cooking oil down the drain. It may seem harmless, but pouring used oil down the drain can wreak havoc on your home’s plumbing and your local sewage system.
If you haven’t collected leftover cooking oil in a container next to your stove like your grandma did, chances are you have quite a bit of it in your drains. Even if it’s a liquid, oil like grease sticks to your pipes as tiny particles that get entangled with each other and build up until your drain becomes clogged, or worse. In fact, cooking oil and kitchen fats and oils are big cause Fat chunks that clog drains.
Your plumber will instruct you to pour any leftover cooking oil or grease into an old can, bottle, or plastic jug, and when it cools, seal the container and throw it in the trash. But you also have the option to throw it away.
Recycling cooking oil as an alternative fuel
That’s right, used cooking oil can be refined into an alternative fuel that burns cleanly in most diesel engines: biofuel. While many commercial establishments already contribute a significant amount of oil for recycling, some programs encourage households to recycle their excess cooking oil as well.
Use the Earth911 Recycling Search to find a recycling location near you that will take your cooking oil. Also some biofuel or biodiesel Companies may offer additional drop-off locations around food-related holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah, so take advantage of them.
Be sure to check with your recycler regarding oil storage and preparation requirements and follow their guidelines. In general, do not mix water with oil. Filter out any food particles floating in the oil and store the oil in a sealed container.
Isn’t it disgusting to strain food particles out of old oil? It’s not as tedious as having to clean a clogged drain afterwards.
Editor’s note: First published on December 1, 2009. This article was updated in December 2024.
