Government

West Sussex Council to recycle cooking oil

By Annie Reece | 25 December 2012 | Add a Comment

West Sussex County Council and its waste and recycling contractor, Viridor, have partnered with renewable energy company Living Fuels Ltd to allow householders to recycle their used cooking oil into energy.

Residents of West Sussex will be able to decant their used cooking oil into collection tanks at nine household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) starting this Christmas. Collection tanks can already be found at all 14 of East Sussex’s HWRCs, as the council set up a partnership with Living Fuels in 2011.

Any oil collected will be taken to Living Fuels’ recovery facility where it is subject to ‘natural gravitational settling’ before being filtered into a bioliquid called LF100. This is then used at combined heat and power facilities owned by sister company Living Power to provide ‘carbon-neutral’ energy to the National Grid at times of ‘unexpected power demand’.

Bill Griffiths, Viridor’s National Recycling Manager, said: “Help make this year’s Christmas a greener one, and bring your cooking oil to one of the household waste recycling sites that are offering the service.

“The best thing to do is for people to put the used oil in plastic bottles, so we can recycle the container as well.

“Why not make the most of the journey by bringing along any other recyclable items left over from the festive season.”

cooking oil

Lionel Barnard, West Sussex County Council’s Deputy Leader, with responsibility for waste and recycling, said that the county’s recycling rates could be boosted if more people recycled their cooking oil.

He said: “In the UK, we are at the forefront of new technology with respect to recycling, which is illustrated with our excellent overall recycling rate of 44 per cent in West Sussex.

“However, we’re always looking for new things for people to recycle to help push this figure even higher, so are really pleased to be launching the service.”

Rob Murphy, Operations Director at Living Fuels, added: "Turning cooking oil into a chemical-free bioliquid results in higher levels of energy recovery than manufacturing carbon-hungry biodiesel, making our process the most sustainable use of waste vegetable oil.

He added: “[A]s well as providing a valuable source of renewable energy, recycling cooking oil can also help prevent it ending up in the sewerage network.”

Collection tanks for used household cooking oil will be set up at the following HWRCs:

  • Billingshurst
  • Burgess Hill
  • Chichester (Westhampnett)
  • Crawley
  • East Grinstead
  • Horsham
  • Littlehampton
  • Shoreham
  • Worthing

A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council said that the scheme will be implemented permanently but ‘as with any material, is subject to review’.

West Sussex has become the latest local authority to partner with Living Fuels, following on from Hampshire County Council, which set up a similar scheme last month.