Green of the Week: 4th Edition

           U-M Recycling is back this week, bringing to you the weekly installment of Green of the Week!  We hope that the news we have been spotlighting here is interesting and fun for our readers, and if you have any suggestions, definitely send us an email at recycle@umich.edu!
          Our news this week comes from overseas, in Bali.  A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Caritas Switzerland, is working with Bali hotels and restaurants on a project collecting cooking oil and converting it into biodiesel fuel.
          From a survey starting in 2010 initiated by the NGO, it was found that cooking oil was not being disposed of in a sustainable manner, posing health risks to humans consuming overused cooking oil and other environmental concerns when dumped in soil and water.  Cooking oils disposed in landfills increases greenhouse gas emissions because decomposition of it produces methane.  The project's goals will address these environmental and health concerns, and the benefits look to be multifaceted in creating jobs and training to underprivileged individuals in the area.
          The project has currently found success in reaching a collection of a minimum 1000 liter daily of cooking oil from participating businesses and looks to expand the amount of hotels and restaurants in the program.  With the biodiesel converter at a processing plant, it is expected that anywhere from 1000-1500 liters of biodiesel fuel will be made daily through collections of cooking oil.

To read the full article, follow this link: http://www.thejakartapost.com/bali-daily/2012-07-27/recycling-project-turns-used-cooking-oil-biodiesel.html

Keep an eye out in the upcoming weeks for for our annual e-newsletter, Recycling Matters!

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