Cooking oil recycling service gets fuel boost

A Jersey-based cooking oil recycling service which employs people with learning disabilities been given a donation of biofuel to help run its collection van for the next two years, it has said.

The service is run by disability charity Les Amis and currently employs seven people on the island.

The charity has collected more than one million litres of oil to be converted into biofuel since it started in 2017, thanks to donations from hotels and restaurants organisers said.

Les Amis facilities manager Alex Black said the biofuel donation from a local business would make a "huge difference" and would affect the number of people it could employ in the future.

Mr Black said rising costs meant it was "difficult to manage overheads" such as storage space and fuel, so the donation would help it sustain the service.

He said it was also a "nice full-circle moment" for the organisation, as it recycled donated cooking oil to create biofuel and had now received a donation of biofuel to collect cooking oil.

The St Saviour-based charity, which supports about 100 people with learning disabilities, estimates it has recycled enough cooking oil to fill 3,600 bathtubs.

The cooking oil is filtered by the Les Amis team and shipped to the UK where it is converted into biofuel, because it cannot be recycled on Jersey.

Mr Black said: "The Les Amis oil recycling service was originally set up to provide purposeful employment for adults with learning disabilities. Due to their hard work and success the service has grown exponentially."

He added: "Without our intervention and with no dedicated facility capable of effectively disposing of this huge amount of waste, there was always the potential this oil could've ended up unsafely burned in the incinerators, or worse in Jersey's water supply and beaches."

Ricky Davey, from the Roberts Garages Group which donated the biofuel, said: "This is such an amazing initiative that helps to reduce waste and provides full-time work for islanders with learning disabilities."

The donation will save the charity £5,000, it estimated.

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