Any restaurant or food service company that uses a fryer will produce used oil. We need your waste oil!

We will put a fryer oil collection container at your location; then, as your exclusive collector, we will happily come and remove the waste oil.

Why donate your oil?

• Reduce cost -- rather than you paying to have the oil removed, The Forest Foundation (TFF) will provide end-of-year, tax deduction forms for your records for the full value of the oil;
• Be a supporter of a local, decentralized energy and sustainable community project. TFF will provide a window sign and brochures detailing this project and your support of it;
• Using waste oil for local fuel is better than paying a renderer to sell it into the animal feed industry, particularly given the problem of prions and mad-cow disease infecting foods;
• Use higher quality oils, which TFF can supply along with their pick-up service, can improve the taste of your foods and the health of your customers, while also providing a higher-value oil for producing fuel.

After the oil is donated to TFF, we purchase it and turn it into biodiesel fuel for local consumption.

TFF can also arrange to have your trap grease removed - please ask if you'd like more information about this. The information on this page applies to fryer oil only.

What you need to do

Call The Forest Foundation (919-957-1500) to talk about your needs. They'll set up an appointment for us (or our contractor: Purestream, LLC) to pick up the first batch of oil (from whatever container you're using), leave a collection container. They'll also ask you about the type and quantity of oil you'll have in order to prepare a contract for you.

In addition to the oil container, we'll provide some information on good ways to let people know that you're supporting environmental projects and local, sustainable energy production by donating your oil.

Once we have the oil, we'll test it to determine its quality and to let us know how much processing we'll have to do before it can be made into biodiesel.

Costs & Tax Deduction

There's no cost to you. You're donating used oil to The Forest Foundation. You'll even get a tax deduction. Some restaurants can achieve a deduction of $5k or more per year, depending on the quantity and quality of the oil.

The amount of your tax deduction depends not only by the amount of oil donated, but also by the quality of the oil. We will be happy to advise and help with this.

Other benefits

We can and will help you improve the management of your oil over time.

Managing your oil is important; the quality of the oil -- both before and after a restaurant uses it -- affects the biodiesel conversion process (and will have an effect on the value to us, and the value of your tax deduction).

Lease your cooking oil from us

We can also provide fresh vegetable oil for you to use, then collect it when you're done. This way, we can assure ourselves of the highest quality used oil for making biodiesel fuel, and assure your customers of great-tasting food. In effect, you'd be leasing oil from us.

Lease prices vary by quantity and oil type.