ASK TRASH QUEEN

Q What is the best way to get rid of used cooking oil? JACKIE, Auckland

A If you have only small, incidental amounts of cooking oil and you have a compost heap, you can gradually add it through your compost heap over time. Cooking oil is plantbased, from canola, coconuts, soy, olive or sunflower, so your compost bin can handle it in low doses.

You can also reduce the amount of cooking oil you use, by using it a few times before discarding it. Cooking oil stored in a glass jar can be used two or three times if you strain it after each use.

Otherwise, to dispose, you can mix it through other general wastes destined for your rubbish bin, such as cat litter or sawdust, or a less preferable option would be to put it into a container with a lid and put the whole thing in your rubbish bin.

It’s really important not to put any cooking oil and in particular animal fats/grease down the drain as this can create major blockages in our sewers and wastewater system. Animal fats can be scraped directly into the bin, or frozen and then the whole block wrapped in newspaper and put in the rubbish.

If you are producing larger or more regular amounts of cooking oil, there are services that can collect them for a fee, or if you are lucky enough to know someone who owns a restaurant, you could ask to put the occasional bottle full into their collection container, as most restaurants will use a collection service.

Get creative with your cooking oil. You can make soap, or if you have a garden, make a pest or weed spray by mixing 1 cup of oil with 1 tbsp of soap and shaking it up, then dilute a couple of tsp of the mixture with 0.5L of water into a spray bottle.

Alex Kirkham is a waste specialist. Wondering what to do with waste? Email Alex at sundaymagazine@stuff.co.nz