Fats, Oil & Grease (FOG) Campaign

The City of Edmonton recently started a program. See:

http://www.edmonton.ca/for_residents/store-it-dont-pour-it.aspx

for details.

William MacKinnon
CO2 Reduction Commercial Coordinator
City of Edmonton
Canada

We collect FOG with our door to door household hazardous waste program. You can see the program at www.folsomhazmat.com. This type of service uses convenience to induce compliance. It is hard to judge what % of the FOG we collect. All commercial restuarants are required to have FOG bins so residents probably use those too. Most of the oil is used by employees making home generated biodiesel.

Rod Miller

I really like the idea of creating a "green business" program. The City asks that the business, like a restaurant, commit to certain activities, like committing to reducing FOG. By committing, you give them a "green" award and advertise the fact that they have earned the award.

Example in Arlington, TX, where the businesses that commit to getting a recycling dumpster get a sign or sticker for the door. In addition, the City purchases ad space in the local paper with the businesses' names.

Example in Grand Prairie, TX, where the Keep G.P. Beautiful group has levels of green where the business that commits to certain activities listed in escalating groups of activities is awarded the corresponding level of green.

This corresponds to the social marketing concepts of competition and being part of a group.

I can imagine this might be a project greater than one person. Why not solicit the help of an already established group, like the local Chamber of Commercie or KAB?

Christi Upton
City of Southlake
United States

The City of San José has a series of FOG-related fact sheets targeting the food service sector, which are distributed by Inspectors. They're available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. They can be downloaded here: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/esd/water-pollution-prevention/fog-bmps.asp

Mary Morse
Sr. Environmental Inspector
City of San Jose
United States
170 W San Carlos St

Thanks for the comments and leads everyone.

There had been outreach materials (phamphlet and BMP document) provided to food sector establishmenst with the adoption of our Food Sector COP a number of years back. A more recent survey of restaurants within the region indicated a general lack of awareness of the COP and more importantly of best practices for FOG management. The issue of biofuels could be a worthwhile addition to any future messaging. Ultimatley the program goal would be for the proper management of FOG to be second nature to those working within the food service sector.



Larry Avanthay
Metro Vancouver
Canada
www.metrovancouver.org

Hi, I should have added in my post just now that we have 330,000 residents in Marion County, Oregon.

Bailey Payne
United States

Hi Larry,
We recently added used vegetable oil to our curbside recycling program and as another item accepted at our recycling depots. The program is going well so far, but we haven't been collecting a lot. We just started the program in January and promotion has only recently started. Based on these first few months of collection, we're projecting only 1,500 gallons collected at the curb and another 200 at the recycling centers. This will likely grow a lot thought as more people learn about the program and around the holidays. Fee free to contact me directly if you have more questions. You are welcome to use the attached graphics. Unfortunatley we don't have much in thye way of CBSM to contribute. -Bailey ([email protected])

Bailey Payne
United States

San Francisco has also implemented a FOG program, although I'm not sure how much leeway they've made (I believe it was started at the end of '08, and I'm just now starting to notice bus ads around the city): http://sfgreasecycle.org/

They encourage residential drop-off at the (inconvenient to get to) city dump/recycling center, as well as offering free pick-up for restaurants. I recall reading a stat that about 20% of SF restaurants currently participate.

Aside from the bus ads, I'm not aware of how else they promote the program. My understanding is that it's run through the SF Public Utilities Commission.


Jess Sand
Owner
Roughstock Studios
United States
http://www.roughstockstudios.com

The Town of Cary has an established FOG program for residential and business, here is the link:

http://www.townofcary.org/grease/

The Residential Cooking Oil Collection pilot program that is mentioned on the Web site was such a success that it has been approved as a permanent program. The oil is converted to biofuel, some of which is returned to the Town to use in our fleet.

Hope this is helpful. Please contact Donald Smith with any questions about the program.

Heather Morell