BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Oil recycling

By Samuel Caruso, age 14 | June 25, 2023

Click the Buzz Me button to receive email notifications when this writer publishes a new article or a new article in this column is published.

SLIPPERY PROBLEM Samuel Caruso, an eighth grader at St. John's, wants to raise awareness about oil recycling after researching it for a project in his history class.

Fried food is amazing, but the cooking oils left behind aren’t. Most people dump this cooking oil down the drain, and although this may seem more convenient, it has detrimental effects on your house’s pipes and the environment. When cooking oils are disposed of down the drain, they stick to the interior of the pipe until it becomes clogged or damaged. Not only does this result in annoying and expensive repairs for you, but clogged pipes result in backups and sewer overflows.

These sewer overflows introduce harmful bacteria into Galveston Bay, disrupting the ecosystem. I felt drawn to this issue because not only does it benefit the environment, but it benefits you as well, as you save money on pipe repairs.

So, instead of dumping cooking oils down the drain, here’s what you should do:

Let the oil cool. Store used cooking oils in a disposable container (an empty milk carton or empty plastic water bottle will do fine). Drive to your nearest cooking oil recycling center and recycle the cooking oil. Two nearby oil recycling centers are located at 5900 Westpark (77057) and 11500 South Post Oak Road (77035). This used cooking oil can then be reused or turned into biodiesel. Biodiesel is a clean-burning alternative which emits a quarter of CO2 when combusted compared to petroleum diesel.

If going out and driving to recycle is too much work, here are a few alternatives to properly dispose cooking oil:

1: Let the oil cool and pour it into a full trash bag so that the trash scraps absorb some of the oil.

2: Put the oil in a container in a freezer overnight or until hardened. Then, scoop this solidified oil into the trash.

3: Let the oil cool, pour it into a disposable container, seal the container, and throw the container away.

So, recycle cooking oils today! Save your pipes, save money on repairs, and save the environment. And at the very least, just don’t dump it down the drain.

Editor’s note: See ceasethegrease.net for more on this topic.

Want to be a Buzz Kid? Email approximately 350 words, a high-resolution photo and caption to [email protected]. Or mail it to The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401.