West Lindsey:Scheme converts enough cooking oil to make 12 million cups of tea

Used cooking oil fromWest Lindsey residents has been turned into renewable energy for the last five years.
NEWS: The Gainsborough StandardNEWS: The Gainsborough Standard
NEWS: The Gainsborough Standard

The scheme, which aims to divert waste cooking oil from sewers, was installed by Lincolnshire Council in 2008 and has recently celebrated its fifth year in operation.

Currently, an estimated 129,000 tonnes of cooking oil is disposed of down the drain by UK residents each year, which results in a countrywide bill of around £15 million in cleaning up blocked sewers.

But residents in West Lindsey, and across Lincolnshire, can get rid of the oil at their local household waste recycling centres (HMRCs) and help to power the UK’s lights at the same time.

Once collected from each of the county’s 12 recycling centres, the waste oil is taken by eco-firm Living Fuels to their recovery facility, where it is naturally settled and filtered into an environmentally friendly bioliquid, LF100.

This bioliquid is then used in the company’s renewable energy stations to provide carbon neutral power for the National Grid at times of unexpected demand.

Mark Johnson, HWRC business manager of waste contractor FCC Environment, who operate four HWRCs on behalf of the council, said: “So far, enough used cooking oil has been collected to provide the equivalent energy to brew 12 million cups of tea, which is enough to provide each person in the county 11 cups each.*

Councillor Reg Shore, of Lincolnshire County Council, said: “The county council supports an increasing range of measures to help maximise recycling and is therefore very happy to partner ‘Living Fuels’ as part of our strategy.”

“It’s good news that just one litre of used cooking oil can power an oven for four hours and one full tank can power the average home for an entire year.”

Ian Collins, Living Fuels’ managing director said: “It’s great to know that Lincolnshire residents are so passionate about recycling and are helping to power the UK’s lights by getting rid of their waste.”