WESTON (Connecticut) - As car owners across the United States grapple with pumped-up petrol prices, some are turning to their favourite restaurants for a solution: recycled vegetable oil. Environmentalists with diesel cars have used vegetable oil for years as an alternative fuel to cut back on sooty emissions, but as petrol prices soar above 52.6 US cents (90 Singapore cents) a litre, they say their 'veggie cars' are a great way to save cash.
Every two weeks, Ms Etta Kantor drives to a local Chinese restaurant to fuel her blue Volkswagen Jetta. She calls ahead and the owner puts aside a few buckets of used oil for her. At home, Ms Kantor, 58, uses a colander and a bag filter to remove water and food particles. The vegetable oil is then poured into a 57-litre tank in the back of her Jetta, where a spare tyre would usually be kept. With a touch of a button located above the radio, she can switch from diesel fuel to vegetable oil in seconds. Restaurants that would have to pay to get rid of their old vegetable oil are happy to give it away for free.
'It saves us a couple of dollars and it helps to save the environment a bit,' said Ms Shawn Reilly, a co-owner of Eli's On Whitney, a restaurant in Hamden.
Bridgeport resident Aaron Schlechter says he picks up 114 to 152 litres twice a month from Eli's. He uses it to fuel his car for his 270km commute every day to his job as an environmental consultant in New York. 'The only way I can assuage my guilt by driving this awful distance is by driving something that isn't consuming fossil fuels and has much more environmentally friendly emissions,' he said.
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