How to Properly Dispose of Used Cooking Oil

Cooking oil is a chef’s best friend. Whether your making bacon for breakfast, deep-frying a turkey at Thanksgiving, churning out thousands of french fries per day in a commercial kitchen  — cooking oils, grease, and animal byproducts add flavor and make the cooking process a whole lot easier. The only problem with cooking oil is what to do with it once you’re done. One thing to note when cooking with oil is that you should never pour it down the drain. Not only does cooking oil compromise the pipes in your own home, but it’s a sewage nightmare. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to correctly dispose of used cooking oil. 

Cooking Oil Disposal for Residential Use

        Let it cool, then dump:

Never try to dump used cooking oil when it’s still hot, as you can seriously injure yourself. Let the oil cool completely (potentially even overnight), then pour it into a non-recyclable container with a lid, like a cardboard milk carton or wax-lined takeout container, and then throw the whole container in the garbage. The most important thing is that the container is leak-proof and sealed tightly to prevent leakages into your garbage can, which can smell up an otherwise odor-free kitchen.

Another option is to let the oil cool completely and then dump the oil directly into a trash can, however, the trash can should be partway filled with paper goods or foods that will absorb the oil. Immediately after dumping, tie the trash bag and transfer it to an outdoor trash bin.

If you only have a small amount of oil in a pan, let it cool and simply wipe the remaining oil from the pan with a paper towel. Throw that paper towel directly into the trash can. 

       Freeze or refrigerate:

If you don’t want to let the oil sit on the stove for hours to cool, simply pour the remaining oil into a coffee mug and store it in the refrigerator until it’s hard. Once it’s hard, use a spoon to scoop out the solidified fat and toss it in the trash. Afterward, make sure to wash the mug out completely with soapy water to ensure you have removed all grease from the mug.

If you’re working with a larger amount of oil, like for deep frying, carefully pour the oil into a can (like an old coffee can) and freeze or refrigerate until you’re ready to dispose of it. You can also keep the vessel on the stove and slowly add oil to it over time until it’s full, then cool in either the fridge or freezer and dispose of the unwanted residue.

       Recycle:

        If you don’t want to throw out your old cooking oil, you can easily recycle it. There are several ways to do this:

Use the oil to fry more food: You can absolutely use cooking oil more than once. First, strain the used cooking oil through a coffee filter to remove any food particles as this prevents it from going rancid. Then, store the oil at room temperature in an airtight container (like the aforementioned coffee can, or a clear glass jar) until you’re ready to cook with it again. You can also store the oil in the fridge because solid grease can be used in place of lard or shortening in recipes for things like biscuits, pie crust, or refried beans. With either method, just don’t use the same batch of oil more than twice.

Donate to a recycling center: Some companies will turn your used cooking into biofuel, so check Earth911 to find oil collection or drop-off services in your area. If there are none, call your local fire department or city government to see if they accept used cooking oil. Some cities might offer this service annually, like after Thanksgiving. 

Cooking Oil and Grease Disposal for Businesses

In a busy restaurant, there isn’t time to cool and individually dispose of all the hot oil used in the line of duty. It’s also dangerous to transport hot cooking oil through a busy kitchen. For this reason, many supermarkets and restaurants opt to enlist the help of a professional oil collection services. 

Some professional services will provide restaurants with oil collection receptacles and then come to collect and dispose of the oil. The most environmentally conscious choice is to find a company that collects and recycles the oil. For example, DAR PRO Solutions provides both indoor oil collection systems and professionals who will collect the leftover oil and turn it into biofuel.

As long as you remember to never pour oil down the drain or in the toilet and never pour hot oil directly into the garbage, cooking oil disposal is as easy to dump as bacon is to eat.