Healthy eating/green living
Restaurant Green Zone promotes use of healthier cooking oils that are then recycled into biodiesel
Paul J. Henderson, The Times
Published: Friday, March 07, 2008
When two otherwise unrelated movements for positive change come together, there can be a doubling in their power.
Healthy eating and green living don't necessarily link together in any obvious way. But some Chilliwack restaurants are changing that thanks to a B.C.-based company that is getting restaurants to convert to healthier cooking oils through its proposal to buy used frying oil and converting it to biodiesel.
Effective Resource Management BioSource recently launched a program entitled the Restaurant Green Zone, and will soon give stickers to local restaurants that participate in their program of recycling cooking oil to turn into biodiesel.
"It's a win/win on both sides," said Robert Greene, program resource manager for ERM BioSource. "Hard oil is bad for heart and the planet."
Because the oil needed to convert to biodiesel also happens to be the more heart healthy non-hydrogenated oils, ERM BioSource has partnered with the Heart and Stroke Foundation to convince restaurants to convert to the healthier oil.
Major League 2 is an example of one such local restaurant that has converted, and for patrons who fear their favourite deep-fried goodies at this Sardis hot spot will change, there's no need to worry.
"It didn't change the flavour of anything," said manager Shelley Campbell. "No one noticed. There's no taste difference."
Campbell said Major League 2 switched in January in part because in her opinion the use of non-hydrogenated oil will be eventually mandated anyway.
The ERM BioSource program pays five cents per litre to restaurants for their oil, and they then have the option to donate their payment to the Hearth and Stroke Foundation of B.C., which is in strong support of the program.
The demand for biodiesel worldwide has increased greatly in recent years, and there is nowhere near the supply to keep up. This program from the B.C.-based company was unveiled in January at the B.C. Food Service Show and has the support of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Service Association and the Recycling Council of B.C., as well as the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
"We have the world's first reactor that can produce 15,000 litres of biodiesel a day that sits on a flatbed truck," Greene said. "We are kind of making history here."
The eventual dream, according to Greene, is to have the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) purchase a dozen of the trucks and use them in India or China or places where cooking oil can be reused as a fuel.
"If I have to work myself out of a job to save the planet, that's OK," he said.
So far, there are 11 restaurants in Chilliwack participating, and they will soon get a sticker to let patrons know they are using the healthier oil, and supplying the province with the used oil for biofuel use. Greene said getting some of the best response in the province right here in Chilliwack.
"Chilliwack is the most proactive followed by Abbotsford and Burnaby."
Vancouver hasn't been that helpful"
WHO'S INVOLVED:
Participating Chilliwack restaurants recycling their cooking oil for biofuels
The Loose Caboose Café
Preferred Country Kitchen
Woo Mai Sushi
Fairways (at Cheam Golf Centre)
Dakota's Restaurant
Duke's Pub
Earl's Chillwack
Jacksons Steakhouse
Jolly Miller Pub
Major League 2
Seven Sushi
© Chilliwack Times 2008
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