The City of Madison will begin a new program to recycle cooking oil. The PrairieFire BioFuels Cooperative 1894 E. Washington Av will use the oil to power members vehicles.

“We know that there are many people who have lots of oil left over after frying their Thanksgiving turkey,” Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said. “We are very excited to be able to offer them a chance to turn that old cooking oil into fuel for cars and trucks in our area.”

Madison residents who wish to recycle their cooking oil must bring it to one of two Streets Division drop off sites. The drop off locations are 1501 W. Badger Rd. on the west side and 4602 Sycamore Av. on the east side. Special cooking oil collection tanks are available at both of these locations.

“Every year thousands of gallons of old cooking oil is tossed in the landfill or flushed down the drain,” Dreckmann said. “Now we can recover this resource and use it to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and cut air pollution.”

Cooking oil must be brought to the 1501 W. Badger Rd. or 4602 Sycamore Av. It should not be taken to the waste oil sites. At this time the program is limited to residential use only. For more information on the Streets Division’s drop off sites visit www.cityofmadison.com/streets/dropLarge.cfm.

PrairieFire BioFuels Cooperative is a member-owned cooperative dedicated to creating access and building infrastructure to support vegetable-oil-based fuel sources and usage. They have a full service diesel shop and are ready to work with diesel owners so their vehicles can run on straight vegetable oil. You can learn more about them at their web site www.prairiefirebiofuels.org.