Domestic cooking
oil disposal
Frying bacon for breakfast, whipping up a stir-fry for dinner, or deep frying chips can leave you with leftover cooking oil. Normally the amount is fairly small compared to commercial kitchens, which means there are a few quick and convenient ways to dispose of used cooking oil at home:
- Reuse cooking oil – the greenest option is to reuse your cooking oil. This can be done once or twice, as cooking oil is reusable just it gets dirty so needs cleaning. Strain the old cooking oil through a coffee filter and keep in a secure container in a dark place until you need it.
- Solidify and dispose – you can freeze or refrigerate small amounts of used cooking oil, then throw it away with your household general waste.
- Combine with other materials – for faster disposal combine cooking oil with any cat litter, sawdust, or sand to soak it up before throwing away.
- Pour in with general waste – if you have a really small amount of waste cooking oil, you can pour it into your general waste bin. It’s best to put in a non-recyclable container, or soak it up with a paper towel or food scraps, to avoid it leaking out of a bin bag.
- Recycle cooking oil – check if your local household recycling centre accepts old cooking oil or if it can be placed in a food waste recycling bin (in a recyclable container).
