On April 24th, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer joined Niki Russ Federman, owner of Russ & Daughters at 179 East Houston Street on the Lower East Side for the restaurant’s first pickup of used cooking oil that will be turned into biodiesel fuel through the Go Green! Cooking Oil Recycling Program. Doe Fund Founder and President, George T. McDonald and Ecology Center Program Director, Tara DePort also participated in the event.

 

Under the recycling program, restaurants are provided with a container that can hold 5, 30 or 55 gallons of used oil; the oil is picked up free of charge by RWA Resource Recovery, a program of The Doe Fund that employs formerly homeless or incarcerated individuals. Once picked up the oil is sold to producers who convert it into biodiesel, fuel that can be used in any diesel engine and which emits less carbon dioxide and asthma-inducing particulates than regular diesel fuel.

 

With the help of Speaker Silver, New York State also provides tax credits for those who use biodiesel and those who produce it.  For users of biodiesel, New York State tax credits can be as high as 20 cents per gallon. For those who produce the converted biodiesel, credits can be as high as 15 cents per gallon. These exemptions add a financial incentive to work toward a greener planet.

 

The cooking oil recycling program will be expanded to the neighborhoods of East Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood in Manhattan over the next few weeks.