A unique ‘fats to fuel’ recycling project in Bradford supported by Yorkshire Water is planning to expand across parts of the city to harness the bio fuel potential of waste cooking oil, whilst also protecting local sewers.

The scheme is being led by the Karmand Community Centre based in Bradford Moor, with Yorkshire Water supporting and granting  £10,000 to help gradually expand the project to cover 6,000 homes in the area.

The project involves asking local residents in the area to collect their waste cooking oil in tubs, known as ‘fat vats’, rather than typically pouring the greasy oils such as ghee down the kitchen sink.

The fat vats, once full, are then collected from residents’ doorsteps, with the cooking oil sold to renewable energy companies to refine and turn into carbon neutral bio fuel.  Just one litre of the cooking oils can generate enough electricity to make 240 cups of tea or power a flatscreen television for 3 hours.

Thanks to the scheme, there has been an almost total elimination of sewer blockages in the area due to less waste cooking oil being poured down sinks which can then solidify into giant 'fatbergs' once in the sewer system.

The scheme began in March last year and currently has 85 households taking part, but could now gradually expand up to 6,000 homes. The tubs of cooking oil are collected by the Karmand Community Centre in a specially branded van provided by Yorkshire Water.  They are then poured into a 1,000 litre container and eventually sold to process and transform into bio fuels used to power generator stations and supply to the National Grid

Duncan Woodhead, Network Protection Technician at Yorkshire Water said:

“We partnered with the Karmand Community centre on this ‘fats to fuel’ project to help educate people on the damage cooking oils can cause to sewers and to reduce sewer blockages.  It’s great to now expand it and get more residents taking part in this community initiative.”

In 2013, Yorkshire Water invested £2.3m on the sewer system in Bradford Moor including work on sewer blockages – via the initiative the firm is now hoping to reduce this spend.

Historically, Bradford Moor  was identified by Yorkshire Water as a sewer blockage hotspot due to 85 blockages taking place between 2011-2014. However, since the scheme launched there has only been one recorded blockage, highlighting the efforts of the local community to collect their cooking oils.