The City of Elmhurst, in partnership with SCARCE (School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education), is hosting a Cooking Oil Recycling event on Saturday, Nov. 24th from 9 am – noon at the City of Elmhurst Public Works Facility (985 S. Riverside Drive).

Recycle your cooking oil into fuel this Thanksgiving by bringing your liquid cooking oil (no bacon grease or other solid animal fats) in a closed container. The oil collected will be recycled into biodiesel. This is a one-day event with the goal to make it easier for residents to properly dispose of their leftover or expired liquid cooking oil with temporary drop-off locations.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fats, oils, and grease cause a full 47% of sewer backups nationally. Even small amounts of grease and oil can cause a problem over time. Cooking oil not only causes clogs but can negatively affect wildlife if dumped outdoors or in storm drains. So much so, the EPA regulates cooking oil in the same way it handles petroleum oil.

If you can’t make it to the collection event, there are several permanent cooking oil collection sites throughout DuPage County. For a list of locations and more information about Cooking Oil recycling, please visit https://www.scarce.org/cooking-oil.