Pipe-clogging cooking oil recycled into eco-friendly fuel

By David Kernodle, News 14, Nov. 27, 2009

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CHARLOTTE -- Black Friday isn't just a busy day for shoppers. Plumbers often spend the day clearing pipes clogged with discarded oil from Thanksgiving dinner.

But there are alternatives to dumping it down the drain. Charlotte Energy Solutions owner Mark Englander collects, refines, repurposes and eventually resells any and all old cooking oil -- most commonly for fuel.

“Five gallon jugs for $1.50 a gallon,” he said.

Englander says demand for recycled cooking oil for fuel purposes is so high he can hardly keep up. One of his customers, Vince DiFrancesco, brought in two containers, about four gallons, of leftover cooking oil from Thanksgiving, and less than 10 minutes later, a buyer was in line to ready to fuel his car.

The Charlotte Energy Solutions cooking oil drop-off site is located at 337 Baldwin Avenue, near uptown Charlotte.