Disposing of Waste Cooking Oil

Does anyone know how to properly dispose of oil waste in a Permaculture system for the common man. Not having a homestead, but instead in a urban location. Say for example you were theoretically frying things (fish because this is towards the end of the usefulness of cooking oil) and then needed to dispose of the oil. In Paul's Podcast, he talks about how pouring oil down into your septic tank or into the city sewage system halts healthy bacteria growth.

Can you clean the oil? Removing flavours, etc. from it?
Where does it go if you had a lot of it?
What about spoiled oil?

Do you know anyone who makes there own biofuels? I bet they would take it.

Make soap!

Hello Lee

First of al when your pans are stil warm let it drip in to a old pan for storidge or bucket then clean your pan or what ever with paper instead of down the kitchen sink believe me even oil wil screw up your pipes over time then the paper is perfict for starting fire's or just the compost heap
I usualy use the oil again for cooking for my 4 basterd german schepards just a little with lots of old bread and other scraps
If you don't mind the smel you can use it in old oil lamps or those beach torches
I love the permaculture way of thinking nothing is a wasteproduct !
Or i even use it on my gates and stuf its organic and becouse it rains you need to lubricate these things more than hinges inside
My sister likes throwing everything down the sink but after fixing it a few times now sche can pay some one to go fix it

HAHA

Daniel, you would make soap with waste oil from a frying pan that may smell like fish?

I don't normally have a large amount of cooking oils/greases for disposal at the end of the day but I'm not against adding small amounts to my hot compost. Poured into the 'core', I haven't had issues.

As long as my frying oil isn't too beat up, it can be filtered and reused in the future. I tend to avoid frying fish unless it is going to be the last use of that particular bit of oil. Frying is a rare thing on my homestead but I don't count it out for special occasions.

I don't have a lot of excess oil from cooking either. I do have a little bit, so I wipe out the fry pan with a disposable rag or moldy paper towels from the stored carrots/beets. If I'm in fire-making season, that will be burned. If not, unfortunately it goes to the landfill.

That's because pouring fats down the drain is idiocy whether you are on a municipal sewage system or a private septic system. It just causes expensive trouble.

As Danny Boosten notes above, it is a great firestarter if it's on a wicking surface. Dirty cardboard, hopelessly filthy old rag bits, a thrice-used paper towel, or an egg carton thrice-stained with poo and broken egg yolk ... I've used them all.

If times were super tough I would reuse the oil, although there is some risk of repeated heating causing trans fats to form. Not good. I might also simmer it in water to filter out some of the salt and then add it to a mash/swill for dogs or pigs.

A curious notion: When I look at history and famine and scarcity over the ages, it seems to me that any society that is deeply concerned about disposing of fats is living a mighty luxurious lifestyle.

I save mine to make soap with, and here in our urban setting people come around looking for it- some use it for biofuel and others make soap to sell. it's really not difficult to make soap and i've never seen oil that was 'too dirty' to use. you can really use the nastiest, fishiest oil, roadkill fat, whatever you have. filter out any weirdness, if it's liquid and it's oil it will make soap.

Lee,  Did you mention somewhere how much oil you are talking about?  Even if you live in town, do you have a garden and/or compost bin.  Cooking oil....even a fairly large amount....would not be a toxic substance to just pour onto a selected location  in your yard.  A whole range of enzymes (lipases, esterases, etc) exist out there in nature's microbes for digesting fats as well as complex carbohydrates like cellulose, starches, etc.   So a bit of time, moisture, and nature's actions will have that becoming part of your soil in relatively short order, assuming you are not living in a polar region.

Edit:  Didn't see initially how old the original post was, but now thinking you could put the oil in your chainsaw bar-oil reservoir and experience a salmon dinner each time you fire it up! :-)

You can pour them next to big trees. Won't hurt em. Or if you have filters filter the oil and reuse them. You can lubricate metal, tools, old wood, underside of rust in your vehicle, etc. mix it with peppermint oil or kerosene or something if you worried about the smell. If you have an building that will help with the wood. Then hit it with a torch to burn it up that will seal it real good. Lamp fuel, small heat fuel Just some ideas...

If it smelled of fish, and you had a problem with cats pooping in your garden, you have the perfect bait for a live trap. What happens next is your business.

We fill a deep-fryer about every four years and deep fry crap every day for a week (you can make tempura or pakora out of everything), then we filter and freeze it for the next time. Occasionally we decide it's done and compost it. Oil disappears just fine into our coolish compost.

Years ago, I kept perpetual oil in a skillet, using it over and over.

When I made pan gravy I strain out the permanents and kept it going.

I feel the cooking oil folks put something in it now days as it foams up after a few uses and if I keep going the fried foods taste bad ...

We have a burning barrel that has not been used in years because we have been in a drought, I pour the oil in there and the ants haul it off ...

When I lived in a city and worked in a commercial kitchen, my boss let me add my waste oil to the 50 gallon drum that was sold every year or two by the kitchen.

Years past, people talked about reusing oils for years by "cleaning" it with cornstarch and I've heard of potatoes, but the cornstarch seems like it might be a better choice?

We don't save greasy stuff for the woodstove in the summer, but add it to our "goopy garbage," usually food waste that doesn't go in the compost. These are put in milk cartons, stapled shut when full (about 1-3 a week). They go to the landfill.

Anne Miller wrote:
I feel the cooking oil folks put something in it now days as it foams up after a few uses and if I keep going the fried foods taste bad ...

Have you been cooking with more eggs? I found that if I ever tried to reheat an egg, that sort of thing would happen. It might have to do with something in the yolks. I have heard that both soy and eggs have some form of lecithin which has soap-like properties, so if you use soy oil that might have an effect?

I don’t use much oil in cooking. But when I do use it, I wipe it with brown (unbleached) paper towels and use it as fire starter.

I wonder if mushrooms would enjoy it as supplemental feeding? Maybe put it in the middle of a stropharia bed? If certain white rot fungi can digest and thrive on gasoline and motor oil then I doubt they’d have much problem with cooking oil.

Maieshe Ljin wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:
I feel the cooking oil folks put something in it now days as it foams up after a few uses and if I keep going the fried foods taste bad ...

Have you been cooking with more eggs? I found that if I ever tried to reheat an egg, that sort of thing would happen. It might have to do with something in the yolks. I have heard that both soy and eggs have some form of lecithin which has soap-like properties, so if you use soy oil that might have an effect?

I only cook french fries.  In the old days my mother said cooking potatoes would clarify the oil.  That no longer happens.

Anne Miller wrote:

I only cook french fries.  In the old days my mother said cooking potatoes would clarify the oil.  That no longer happens.

That is a change. What sort of oil do you use?

Maieshe Ljin wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:

I only cook french fries.  In the old days my mother said cooking potatoes would clarify the oil.  That no longer happens.

That is a change. What sort of oil do you use?

Olive oil.  When the oil first started foaming up i ask google who told me the oil was old.  If it was six month then maybe but it only last about a month.

Hmm, so it may be adulterated?… I do wonder if they’d put soy oil in to lower the expense. But maybe it is some extra process or something added in. Or anything actually.