SAN DIEGO— The Green Restaurant Association’s goal is to create an environmentally sustainable restaurant industry; now, this industry is not only cleaning up its own act, it has the opportunity to become a supplier of fuel to the United States. How? The Green Restaurant Assn. is partnering with New Leaf Biofuel, LLC, which has just begun collecting waste grease from restaurants in San Diego and plans to produce 3 million gallons of biodiesel each year.
“The Green Restaurant Association’s goal is to turn every restaurant in the United States into an environmentally safe source of fuel for America,” says Michael Oshman, executive director of the Sharon, Mass.-based organization. “All the trucks transporting food and supplies to and from restaurants can be fueled by restaurant waste biodiesel.”
New Leaf is working with local restaurants to provide San Diego communities with an alternative vehicle fuel source that is environmentally sound, produced from recycled resources, and competitively priced.
“It makes sense for communities to utilize local resources to become more self-sustaining,” says Nicole Kennard, founder and president of New Leaf Biofuel. “Every restaurant in San Diego can play a role in combating global warming and reducing our dependence on foreign oil. New Leaf would like to be part of the solution. We want to be a positive force for the future of San Diego, creating energy from waste and at the same time making the environment a better place to live.”
America’s restaurants could supply drivers with enough biodiesel to cut oil consumption by 350 million gallons per year. That is enough oil to eliminate all imports from the following countries: Syria, Yemen, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Ukraine and Bolivia.
Using biodiesel instead of diesel fuel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent. Harvesting this renewable fuel is not a new concept; individuals from around the globe have been collecting restaurant grease and using it as a fuel in their diesel cars. What is new and can potentially shift the world one large step away from oil is that this resource will be collected by a professional company, who will then turn the waste grease into biodiesel, to be easily and readily accessible to drivers of diesel cars and trucks. In other words, restaurant grease biodiesel is going mainstream.
Go to Green Restaurant Assn.
