November 27, 2012

Recycling your turkey-frying oil in Madison, Wisconsin for the greater good of America and the world.

A City of Madison news release:
"We know that there are many people who have lots of oil left over after frying their Thanksgiving turkey," Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said. "We are very excited to be able to offer them a chance to turn that old cooking oil into fuel for cars and trucks in our area."
Dreckmann — a euonym! The Oxford English Dictionary defines "dreck" — from Yiddish drek (German dreck) filth, dregs, dung — as "Rubbish, trash, worthless debris":
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. 491 Farewell. Fare thee well. Dreck!
1947 Horizon Feb. 90 The anonymous countryside littered with heterogeneous dreck.
1965 E. Lacy Double Trouble v. 58 Drek your dolls are!.. I wouldn't stick my customers with such junk!...
Back to the press release:
"Every year thousands of gallons of old cooking oil is tossed in the landfill or flushed down the drain. Since we began our cooking oil program we have recovered over thousands [sic] of cooking oil" Dreckmann said. "Now we can recover this resource and use it to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and cut air pollution."

Cooking oil must be brought to the 1501 W. Badger Rd. or 4602 Sycamore Av....
So hundreds/thousands of citizens with their gallon jugs of used oil will get in their cars and drive to the oil collection site and then various unseen processes will be applied to convert that stuff into something useful. Is there a net benefit to the environment and to the American economy? I don't know, but think how wonderful it is that the nice people of Madison can feel good about themselves (after they went ahead and deep-fried the turkey instead of just roasting it).

Oh, Althouse, why are you so cynical?!  I'm sorry. Let me paint a different picture. The turkey-frying Madisonian hangs gallon jugs of used oil on his handlebars and bikes down South Park Street to Badger Road.

35 comments:

edutcher said...

Well, we know how MeadeHouse will spend their afternoon.

rhhardin said...

You don't want wobbly things on the handlebar. Put the jug in a front handlebar basket where it turns exactly with the handlebars.

Wobbly things interact with steer-balancing negatively, by changing the timing of forces.

alan markus said...

Maybe Willie Nelson can swing by and pick it up all those jugs with his vegetable oil powered tour bus or Mercedes.

chickelit said...

I usually just burn old bacon grease in the backyard firepit. It makes a good fire starter.

kjbe said...

They may have a cargo bike or child carrier...but would likely go down Fish Hatchery, not Park St.

Anonymous said...

Just as soon pour oil on water to smooth things out...get more use out of it that way.

karrde said...

I've heard stories about owners of diesel-engine vehicles finding ways to get the engine to run on used cooking oil.

Matter of fact, there are a few eHow articles about the process.

Is that what this new facility will do? Or is something else intended?

bagoh20 said...

Vegetable oil? You mean that stuff growing all over the planet by the tanker load all day every day and then dying and returning to the soil. That terrible stuff?

Sequester that carbon - dig a hole and bury it. It's the only way to keep it out of the atmosphere. It's the only way to be sure.

ricpic said...

There was a time when..."That's it, your grandfather and father cleaned up pigpens? you're Dreckmann and all your descendants are too." Not quite the same as being named Baker or Carpenter.

David said...

It would be interesting to know what is actually done with that cooking oil once the SUV's deliver it for collection.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

So it's not true about all those traditional Madison, Wisconsin holiday Crisco parties?

Anonymous said...

I live in Seattle. Can't say this sounds like an unusual request.

Why, you can just plug your hybrid here in at the pavilion at the local park where it generates 100,000 BTU's of social justice.*

chickelit said...

bagoh20 suggests:

Sequester that carbon - dig a hole and bury it. It's the only way to keep it out of the atmosphere. It's the only way to be sure.

Another answer is to bio-sequester, to carry the carbon you forged in life, link-by-link: link

Sorun said...

Thankfully, saving the world is easy! If it was more inconvenient or complicated, fewer people would do it.

Hagar said...

Is that white space on the map where UW-Madison slips into the 5th dimension?

Hagar said...

Lake Mendota did not color on my screen.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

but think how wonderful it is that the nice people of Madison can feel good about themselves (after they went ahead and deep-fried the turkey instead of just roasting it).

You libs are so funny.

First of all, it takes much less energy to deep fry a turkey for 30 minutes than it does to roast it for hours and hours.

Second. Re use the cooking oil yourself. I strained ours through several layers of cheese cloth, repacked it into the containers and put it into the extra refrigerator, along with the beer and wine. We have already, since Thanksgiving, deep fried several chickens that were on sale and have vacuum sealed and frozen them. The oil can be used over many times as long as you strain and refrigerate.

The energy to turn old used cooking oil into auto fuel is counter productive.

It is like the liberals just can't do math or something.

Nathan Alexander said...

There is a DC-area trash pickup service that claims to run only on bio-fuel.

I know this because their truck, plastered with such claims, pulled in and filled up at the petro-diesel pump when I was filling up with gas.

Believing hard enough makes it true. This is the philosophy that powers the liberal effort.

Levi Starks said...

I think it's unlikely Madison will actually be doing any of the actual recycling, that is turning it into actual fuel. It's real work where people get their hands dirty. Not the kind of thing college graduates would lower themselves to do.
There is a market for used vegetable and animal oils, it will be sold, and money collected. In would like to see the supply chain that puts the reclaimed diesel fuel into the tanks of Madison drivers. I know someone here in MO who does make his own fuel from waste oil. Also a MO state legislator who was doing this was called into account for failing to pay fuel (road use tax). I certainly hope Madison isn't defrauding WI from fuel tax which would otherwise be paid.

Levi Starks said...

I think it's unlikely Madison will actually be doing any of the actual recycling, that is turning it into actual fuel. It's real work where people get their hands dirty. Not the kind of thing college graduates would lower themselves to do.
There is a market for used vegetable and animal oils, it will be sold, and money collected. In would like to see the supply chain that puts the reclaimed diesel fuel into the tanks of Madison drivers. I know someone here in MO who does make his own fuel from waste oil. Also a MO state legislator who was doing this was called into account for failing to pay fuel (road use tax). I certainly hope Madison isn't defrauding WI from fuel tax which would otherwise be paid.

Ann Althouse said...

"You don't want wobbly things on the handlebar. Put the jug in a front handlebar basket where it turns exactly with the handlebars. Wobbly things interact with steer-balancing negatively, by changing the timing of forces."

Well, first, how many gallon jugs do you think the average turkey frier will need to transport his used oil? I'm guessing 5. So now, how would you distribute these 5 jugs for bicycle riding.

In Madison, I immediately picture them getting loaded onto one of those child-transport trailers, but let's assume just a guy on a bike.

McTriumph said...

Never bought a gallon of cooking oil, but I can't imagine it's cheaper than diesel.

MadisonMan said...

And strands of Christmas lights! Don't forget you can recycle those too!

I hope this is a revenue stream for Madison. I doubt it's carbon neutral.

Crunchy Frog said...

It's real work where people get their hands dirty.

Add lye. Make soap. Clean hands.

MadisonMan said...

And why would you bike down Park St? Fish Hatch is faster and more direct.

Sam L. said...

What? There aren't enough veg-oil diesels in Madison to use all this? I am shocked!

ken in tx said...

A man in North Carolina was hit with a big road tax bill after he went around bragging about how much money he saved by using cooking oil in his diesel car.

ken in tx said...

If you are not buying fuel from an approved and taxed supplier, keep your mouth shut. It's sort of like using tractor gas in your car.

Calypso Facto said...

Plus, in the south Park 'hood, the oil will make a good Molotov cocktail when you're set upon by muggers as you bike through.

jr565 said...

I like my plan better. On thanskgiving on midnight I siphon thousands of gallons of gas from people's car. Thrn I sell the gas for less than what they charge at the gas station. The key is to not sell the gas in the same town as where you siphoned the gas.

Calypso Facto said...

The key is to not sell the gas in the same town as where you siphoned the gas.

Or fry a turkey in it!

Superdad said...

If you just put in a little bit at a time, you can run it through a normal diesel engine. Its a compression based deal, you can run dang near any oil based product through it. When I was in the Army we used to dispose of all our left over kerosene, JP-8 jet fuel, and other random oil products by dumping it into the fuel tanks on our trucks.

Peter V. Bella said...

I refuse to recycle.

Deepfryaturkey said...

You must always try to recycle your turkey oil. We love to deep fry turkeys and usual give our oil to local fast food restaurants or even a quick search on craigslist for "cooking oil" can find you someone in need.

If you need any more disposal tips, or anything about deep fried turkey check out our book on Amazon Kindle entitled, Turkey Fryers & Deep Fried Turkey: "How To Deep Fry A Turkey- Complete Step By Step Instructions To Cooking Your Tastiest Turkey Ever!"

Enjoy!

reformed trucker said...

"If you just put in a little bit at a time, you can run it through a normal diesel engine."

I know a guy who got rid of all his drain oil that way, but you might have to change fuel filters a little more often.