CHENNAI: The oil that’s used to fry your evening fritters in that eatery nearby might soon power government vehicles including public buses, food safety officials have said.
The food safety wing has collected five tonne of used cooking oil from various hotels and eateries over 15 days between August 16 and September 1 as part of a national campaign to repurpose used cooking oil.
The used oil — toxic to health and hazardous to the environment —will be converted into more than 4,500 litres of biodiesel that will be used along with diesel in government vehicles including cars, vans and public buses.
“It is a small beginning,” said designated food safety officer (Chennai) Dr P Satheesh Kumar. “The aim is to stop resale of cooking oil from big food and beverage operators to smaller units. It will prevent heart diseases and cancer among consumers, stop soil and water pollution as it will be disposed of in a secure pathway, reduce air pollution due to vehicular emissions and bring down diesel cost for the government,” he said.
The city is estimated to generate up to 500 tonne of used oil every month, which can produce up to 4.2lakh litres of biodiesel. In festive months, the collections can increase up to 600 tonnes, said B Chandrasekar, who has been appointed as an aggregator for re-used oil for the city.
His team collects re-used oil from food and beverage operators at periodic intervals. The team pays up to ₹₹34 per litre of used oil, which is then handed over to biodiesel manufacturers. At least 85% of the volume is retained when the used oil is converted into biodiesel.
Chandrasekar’s team has started collection of used cooking oil in Tiruvallur. They collected 5 tonnes of oil in March, 3 tonnes in April and 300kg in May due to increase in Covid-19 cases. But in June, his team collected six tonnes, which increased to 13 tonnes in July and 19 tonnes in August.
Over the next six months, the food safety wing aims to increase collection of reused oil to at least 100 tonnes a month.
