Keep Cooking Oil Out of Your Sink
Even if hot water is running and grease is liquid when it goes down the drain, cooking oils and fats solidify when they reach cold pipes. Cities and homeowners spend thousands of dollars on resulting sewer clogs. Garbage is for solid waste only so what’s a person to do?
Recycle your used cooking oil into biodiesel! Save your vegetable cooking oil in a container and bring it to a cooking oil recycling location or special event. Locations accept liquid, vegetable-based cooking oil only – no animal fats (ie those solid at room temperature).
Learn more about cooking oil recycling including what to do with animal fats here.
Thanks to a grant from the DuPage Foundation, SCARCE has been able to help communities establish permanent cooking oil collection sites. Contact us for more info.
Annual Cooking Oil Collection Day – Thanksgiving Weekend
To make cooking oil recycling more convenient for residents, each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving additional temporary drop-off locations are available for liquid cooking oil. If you’re frying a turkey – or anything else – please bring liquid cooking oil (vegetable-based only, no bacon fat or other solid animal fats) in a container to one of the participating locations. Containers will not be returned so be sure to bring one you don’t mind leaving behind. More info & View locations
2023 Pop-Up Sites:
- Addison: SCARCE, 800 S. Rohlwing Rd. Unit D 9am-noon
- Downers Grove: Sanitary Treatment Center, 2710 Curtiss St. 9 am-noon
- Glen Ellyn: Glenbard Wastewater Authority, 21W551 Bemis Rd, 9am-noon
- Elmhurst: Public Works Facility, 985 S Riverside Dr. 9 am-noon
- Naperville: Household Hazardous Waste Facility, 156 Fort Hill Dr, 9am-2pm
- Villa Park: Salt Creek Sanitary District (parking lot), 20 S. Rt 83, 9am-noon
- Wood Dale: Public Works Facility, 720 N Central Ave, 9am-noon
Get involved! Contact emily@scarce.org
Thank you to our recycling partner Green Grease Environmental.