It’s very nice to notice that more people are making soap from used cooking oil. The comments on the ecologic soap post that I wrote for the Ecoblogs Network prove that this attitude is becoming increasingly common among environmentally aware and concerned people. My daughter is saving used oil and, very soon, we’ll make more soap.

Another little recipe…
5 litres of used cooking oil
2 litres of water
200ml of fabric softener
1Kg of caustic soda, in flakes

Instructions:
Carefully place the caustic soda flakes in a bucket.
Add boiling water, very carefully.
Stir until all of the flakes are completely diluted.
Add the oil and stir a bit more. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes creamy.
Add the fabric softener and other ingredients to scent the soap.
Pour the mixture onto a baking pan and let it dry.
Divide the soap into bars.

Tips:
•    If you prefer, while the soap is still creamy, pour the mixture into one or several molds and let it harden.
•    The soap should be put on a shelf and left to mature for at least 2 or 3 weeks before being used.
•    Wear gloves and be careful with your eyes, because the sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) may cause burns, allergies, and irritations when in contact with skin.
•    In case of accidental contact, wash the area with running water for at least 15 minutes.
•    Once the oil is mixed with the caustic soda solution, the mixture is no longer dangerous.

Another way to dispose of used cooking oil is to deposit it in collectors, or take it to the nearest Extra store, since this supermarket chain keeps special containers for this purpose. From there, all of the collected cooking oil will be sent by a cooperative to recycling companies, which will use it as a raw material to produce biofuel.

And now, with the law that requires that all cooking oil used to fry food be reused, collecting the oil residue is no longer part of an awareness-raising campaign but a legal regulation subject to applicable penalties. This law, approved in a single vote by the House of Representatives stipulates that every commercial establishement, including restaurants, cafeterias, and dinners, as well as citizens, must collect, in an adequate container, cooking oil used for frying food.

It’s like my mom used to say: “If not out of love, then out of necessity.”

Read this post at the Sturm Und Drang blog: Collecting used oil is “cool”

Read this post at the Sturm Und Drang blog: