You could always find restaurant that you frequent and ask if you can dump your oil in their grease bins out back.... a trade off for being a good customer.

Here, it is accepted for collection at various recycling sites. From there it goes to a biodiesel recycling plant where it is converted into a useful fuel for any diesel powered vehicles. Biodiesel refined from used cooking oil is one of the lowest carbon fuels available with an 85% reduction in lifecycle CO2 emissions over conventional petroleum diesel. Really a very "green" product when compared to petrodiesel.

The production of glycerine and other lubricants and solvents are a by-prodcut of the biodiesel conversion.

I can plead with you what not to do. About four weeks ago, I was walking my dog and slipped on grease poured into the street. My knee is still sore.

GIVE that chicken fat BACK to the chicken....

(in case you can't hear me singing that, enjoy the Robert Preston original)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af2j59zzX3Q

Find someone making biodiesel

Recycle it into animal feed ... in winter if you are feeding feral cats they can use the extra calories from having some fat melted and stirred into their kibble.

Robert Preston, ha! I didn't know his name but immediately recognized the voice from The Music Man. Good one.

I don't fry food much. My husband, who is very handy, was called into our neighbors' house because they had problem with their kitchen drain. When he opened the drain he found it was clogged with fat. They were apparently pouring fat down the drain. He cleaned it out and told them to find another way. Speaking of restaurants collecting fat, there are instances when they would put out containers filled with frying fat for collection and they'd be stolen! One reason that prompted me to write about frying fat is something I heard about fat molecules finding their way into the clouds. Which surprised me. All human activities are interfering with natural processes. `

Why are fat molecules in the clouds such a bad thing? They are just a series of hydrocarbon (hydrogen, oxygen and carbon) atoms and are completely natural. btw, a good portion of this suspended fat is naturally occuring - decomposing organic matter, like plankton, forms a layer of fat on the ocean surface. Ocean spray and wave acitivity then propels these fat molecules up into the atmosphere.

I burn it in the wood stove. I simply take a cardboard box, set it on a thick layer of newspaper (or another layer of cardboard,) and pour the oil into the box. It soon completely soaks in and makes an incredible oil/fat delivery system for the fire.

I saw the fat molecules in clouds thing too. I am not sure the study was actually indicating they caused some kind of a problem, but my impression was that this was a discovery that aerosol fat particles can interact with the atmosphere. For example, by acting as a nucleus for condensation, or some other mechanism. Research doesn't always make huge discoveries, it occurs in steps. Some connection or effect is found, and then it's further researched. I'm not sure this story was saying that frying food causes climate change or anything.

rgreen48 - I've used fat this way too. What happened to fat molecules before McDonald's. There may be some naturally occurring,` considering billions of people inhabiting the earth we are producing more than nature. Our lifestyle in itself is problematic.

Nature never had deep fat fryers.

BTW I don't fry either, but nothing goes to waste at my house. Whenever I cook a turkey, chicken, ham, etc. all the fat is skimmed off the drippings or off the top of the stock pot. Fat trimmings can be put right into bird blocks but I usually render them first and save up the fat to make a batch. The cracklins used to go to my kitty cat, when I had one. :-( We're not huge meat eaters but it's amazing how much you can collect in a year if you don't throw it out.

Bacon fat, however, the birds don't get. :-D