Tips to Choose a Professional Used Cooking Oil Disposal Company

It’s a smell well-known - and infamous - to cooks, chefs, porters, waiters, and restaurateurs everywhere and throughout the industry: the used oil bin.

It’s not just because it smells bad that disposing of used cooking oil is important. The stuff builds up, and keeps coming. Normal operations produce a steady supply of used cooking oil that needs to be taken care of. This means it’s important to find the right service that will do so without the need for stress or worry. Here’s how: a few tips to choose a professional used cooking oil disposal company.

1) Look for expertise and experience

All restaurants are different, from their internal layout to their outdoor access and space. A quality oil disposal company has experience devising and implementing solutions for restaurants of all shapes and sizes, and is aware that no two solutions can be exactly the same - but that they can find multiple viable solutions for every restaurant they serve. Those solutions may be outdoor bins, indoor collection tanks, or a direct pump system. Whatever the case, the right oil disposal service will work with their clients to make the best possible solution happen.

2) Inquire about what the company does with the oil

Some see used cooking oil as waste to be disposed of. But a whole lot of it accumulates over time, and it still has utility once it’s been hauled off. Recycled cooking oil holds the potential to be made into biodiesel or other energy sources, and to add a powerful element of sustainability to the energy chain that oil moves through after it leaves the fryer. Nevertheless, industry practices aren’t standardized, and some companies view disposal differently. Speak with potential services about how they handle collected oil, and inform yourself of your options for integrating sustainability and recycling into your business.

3) Find a reliable, communicative company

A too-full outdoor bin is no treat, but it’s a far more desirable situation than an overflowing indoor tank. Both situations are those that restaurateurs want to avoid at all costs. An essential step in doing so is seeking out a reliable and communicative oil disposal service that will work out a schedule - and stick to it. An appropriate and consistently implemented disposal plan is critical in keeping spills and overflow situations from interfering with your customers’ experience.

One additional tip: as all restaurant managers know, uncertainty is the name of the game when it comes to eateries. Sudden changes in volume happen - and bring sudden changes in the amount of oil along with them. Ensuring your oil disposal service is not only reliable, but also communicative and accessible, can go a long way in providing ease of mind for the stormy days and busy nights sure to happen.

The used oil bin need not be a source of stress. Use these tips to find a professional and reliable cooking oil disposal company, and it can be just another part of operations that can be safely entrusted to run without a hitch.