Alachua County will collect waste vegetable oil from food vendors at upcoming fairs and festivals that it can use to produce biodiesel fuel.
At the Alachua County Fair, which ended Oct. 26, the county provided special collection drums food vendors used to collect and recycle waste vegetable oil, according to a county news release. Likewise, these collection drums will be used at the city of Gainesville’s Downtown Festival and Art Show on November 16 and 17 as well as at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire , which will run Jan. 25-26 and Jan. 31-Feb. 2, 2014.
Alachua County Pollution Prevention Manager John Mousa said the county collected roughly 150 gallons of waste vegetable oil from food vendors at the fair.
Next year, the county plans to work with even more local festivals and fairs to broaden its waste vegetable oil collection efforts. Over the past two years, it has collected more than 700 gallons of the stuff from various community events.
The county knows there will be fried foods at these festivals, which means vendors will be using a lot of vegetable oil and will need to get rid of the waste afterward. It’s just offering them an easy way to do that, which in turn gives the county more raw material to use in generating biodiesel fuel.
Biodiesel can be used in vehicles by blending it with regular diesel fuel. The county uses it mainly in garbage trucks, although it also has a biodiesel-fueled generator it can use to power the Hazardous Waste Collection Center, The Sun previously reported. Using biodiesel is a cost-saving measure as well because it costs around $2 per gallon to produce biodiesel while procuring diesel fuel can mean paying upwards of $3.50 per gallon.
The county resumed producing biodiesel in July following the Florida Legislature’s approval of a new law that exempts counties, school districts and municipalities from a previous requirement that they maintain fuel wholesaler licenses to produce biodiesel for internal use. It first began generating biodiesel in 2010.