Phoenix Pumping provides best-in-class used cooking oil recycling service to restaurants and food service companies in southern California. We operate 24/7 commercial service in LA, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Arizona, and Nevada.
We provide professional cooking oil disposal service. We also provide easy access to all records of oil collections. Collection records are essential and required by the California LCFS (low carbon fuel standards) set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB.)
With facilities throughout Southern California, and a large, distributed fleet of service trucks, we’re always nearby and ready to serve you.
Our professionally trained staff remove used oil from your premises and take it our facility for pre-processing. The oil is then sold to renewable diesel producers who produce fuel that is 80-85% less carbon intensive than regular diesel. Most of this fuel is purchased and consumed in California.
Our primary objective is customer loyalty. To achieve that, we provide highly reliable service. If an issue arises you have the phone number of our CEO. We pride ourselves on accessibility and the flexibility to make changes at any time to meet your needs.
Yes, our used cooking oil collection company is fully insured.
We’ve been serving Southern California for a decade. We specialize in used cooking oil recycling and grease trap cleaning. We’re locally based, accessible, professional and totally focused on customer loyalty.
Indoor systems are less expensive than you’d think. If you produce sufficient oil they might well be free. They represent enormous benefits to the efficiency and safety of your kitchen. We do not require onerous long-term contracts. An indoor system will definitely save you money, perhaps even reduce your insurance premiums.
We provide used cooking oil collection services to Southern California, including Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County, and San Diego County. We also serve Nevada and Arizona.
Used Cooking Oils are fats and oils that have been used in cooking by restaurants, food processors and consumer households and are often collected by used cooking oil recycling companies such as Phoenix Pumping. Phoenix Pumping provides used cooking oil disposal service and grease trap cleaning in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside, along with Nevada and Arizona.
Most UCO is derived from vegetable oils that have been used in deep-fat frying. UCO can have animal fats mixed in, as meat cooks, and fat from beef, pork, and chicken liquify. Large quantities of used cooking oil that need to be recycled typically come from deep fryers, but recyclers can also recycle cooking oil that was used to saute or pan fry foods on the stovetop or the drippings from rotisserie chicken.
UCO may also contain small amounts of water and food particles but it should not contain brown grease. Brown grease is food industry waste that is captured in grease traps. Too much of any of these contaminants will make the oil unrecyclable. When brown grease is recycled it takes place in a separate processing stream from used cooking oil.
Phoenix Pumping’s used cooking oil recycling is free and you may be compensated for your oil if the quantity and quality are sufficient.
UCO is created by cooking foodstuffs in vegetable oil or animal fat and then draining the used oil into containers. Restaurants often use many gallons of cooking oil each day. When the oil is no longer usable, restaurant staff pour or drain the oil into dedicated containers to store until it can be picked up by a used cooking oil recycling company such as Phoenix Pumping for recycling.
These containers are small, mobile, and often fit under a sink or prep table. They range in size from 35 to 75 gallons.
They can be large outdoor containers made of HDPE plastic or heavy duty steel. Sizes range to 300 gallons.
Or they can be a variety of different indoor tanks(some with smart technology) which collect oil by different methods of transfer from the fryers.
Restaurants can filter and polish their used cooking oil to extend its useful life as cooking oil. Filtering involves straining burned food pieces from the oil and running the oil through a filtration machine. Filtration machines are not cheap but they are very worthwhile when compared with the amount of oil you would need if not filtering. Filtering your oil can make it last up to 50 percent longer than it would if you didn’t filter it. Some fryers such as those from Pitco and Henny Penny come with automatic filtration built into the fryer.
Polishing your oil with a chemical filter powder removes protein, blood and other impurities that mechanical filtering can miss. This is especially important in fryers that handle meat, fish and poultry. And with prices of cooking oil skyrocketing due to shortages of various causes, filtering and polishing becomes imperative.
There are at least 3 important reasons to recycle used cooking oil responsibly.
Petroleum oils and used cooking oils that aren’t properly recycled have similar environmental impacts, according to the EPA. That is they can be toxic, destroy animal and fish habitats, and coat animals and plants, all of which produce oxygen depletion and destroy food supplies. The oils can destroy breeding animals.
Spilled oil can harm living things because its chemical constituents are poisonous. This can cause skin and eye irritation. If animals inhale or consume the oils, it can wreak havoc on their insides.
The oil can also reach natural water reserves, which puts the lives of aquatic and marine creatures at risk. Oil can also smother some small species of fish or invertebrates and coat feathers and fur, reducing birds’ and mammals’ ability to maintain their body temperatures. If cooking oil reaches the water, it can kill aquatic life forms and birds by coating them with a thick layer of sludge. This reduces their ability to breathe, which can lead to them choking to death.
Some people think they can dump used cooking oil in the ground or in their garden, but improperly disposed of cooking oils clog municipal waterways, block pipes, and create expensive and foul-smelling backups into restaurants and homes. This dumping can also cause contaminated oils to leech into aquifers contaminating the water, making it undrinkable, and harming both animals and waterways.
Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that trap heat. We need some greenhouse gases to keep Earth warm enough for human habitation. The gases act like the glass of a greenhouse. Scientists agree, however, that the dramatic increase of greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution are intensifying climate change. Natural-made greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. C02 levels have increased 50% since the Industrial Revolution.
Three industrial fluorinated gases – hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) – come from industrial processes and do not occur in nature. They are present in small concentrations in the atmosphere, but are extremely effective at trapping heat and contributing to climate change.
Strict regulations regarding the disposal of used cooking oil exist in every California city. Proper disposal prevents your business from being fine for failure to adhere to the law, and from suffering the cost of cleanup, lawsuits and property damage. Your business could even be closed as a result of improper disposal.
Cooking oil begins to deteriorate the first time you cook with it. The combination of heat from cooking and water released from the food as it cooks leads to three major chemical changes: the fatty acids oxidize, the fatty acids polymerize and the triglycerides hydrolyze, breaking into free fatty acids and glycerol. The longer your food cooks and the higher the oil’s temperature, the more your oil will deteriorate. As it goes through these three processes, it produces new compounds: aldehydes, ketones and alcohols. If they accumulate they can negatively affect the quality and flavor of the food you cook. Eventually they can become toxic.
Before your oil becomes dangerous, it can stop your food from tasting its best. Throughout the cooking process, small pieces of food can break off and stay in the oil, eventually burning and harming the flavor of your food. This also makes your oil start to smoke at lower temperatures. Over time food won’t taste as good and the food you want to be crispy will become oil soaked. A smoking oil can impart a burned flavor to your food.
You can extend the life of your cooking oil with filtering and polishing to remove these extra food particles and keep the smoke point higher, but any oil you use to cook must eventually be recycled. Filtering and polishing help extend the life of cooking oil but they cannot return it to its original state. Filtering mechanically traps and suspends food particles and burned pieces of a certain size. Polishing involves chemically binding proteins and amino acids so they can be trapped and removed.
The number of times cooking oil can be reused varies with a number of factors, from the type of foods you cook to the temperature of cooking to the type of oil used. It also varies with adherence to basic techniques of handling the frying process such as cleaning the fryers and not salting and seasoning over a fryer. And some oils you only want to cook one type of food in. For instance, you don’t want to cook fries in the same oil you cook fish in unless your customers like fishy fries.
Lastly, there are the best management practices your kitchen should observe to prevent early breakdown of cooking oil. These include not salting or seasoning over the fryers, minimizing the water going into the fryers, turning off fryers and letting them rest when not in use for an extended period, and covering the fryers when not in use.
The best way to know if your oil needs to be recycled is to test it. A digital PCE cooking oil tester measures the amount of TPM (total polar material) in your cooking oil. The colors registered on the device tell you whether your oil is still good or needs to be disposed of. You can also use cooking oil test strips and look at the various shades of a color on the test strip. This works but is a much less precise method than a digital tester. Here is a comparison of the various methods of testing the quality and state of your cooking oil.
Alternatively, you can check for the following signs, though your interpretation of them will be subjective.
These are all indications that it may be time to recycle your cooking oil.
Flushing oil down the toilet or disposing in a sink is the worst way to dispose of old oil. Oil is liquid at room temperature but quickly solidifies below 54 degrees Fahrenheit. That means your oil will clog pipes, backing up your plumbing and your neighbors’ plumbing as well. If it reaches the municipal water disposal system it can cause enormous damage resulting in severe losses, fines, and cleanup costs.
These Popeye’s employees took a shortcut, dumping cooking oil in a municipal sewer grate and the company is paying a big price. Neighbors claimed basements were flooded due to the clogged pipes that resulted.
Municipalities the world over are fighting fatbergs, accumulations of oil, grease and wipes creating huge blockages in municipal wastewater systems causing millions in damages and cleanups. Some fatbergs are the size of school buses like this 130 ton fatberg in London.
Every city in California has strict rules, regulations, fines, penalties and cleanup costs to be borne by the FSE (food service establishment) if their clogged pipes or disposal of grease causes damage to the municipal water system. Below is an excerpt from the rules in Orange County.
Sewer System Overflows (SSOs), Public Nuisance, Abatement Orders and Cleanup Costs.
Notwithstanding time limits provided for in this chapter, FSEs found to have contributed to a sewer blockage or SSOs resulting from the discharge of wastewater or waste containing FOG, may be ordered to install and maintain a grease trap, and may be subject to a plan to abate the nuisance and prevent any future health hazards created by sewer line failures and blockages, SSOs or any other sewer system interferences. SSOs may cause injury to the public health, safety, and welfare of life and property and are hereby declared public nuisances. Furthermore, sewer lateral failures and SSOs caused by FSEs alone or collectively, are the responsibility of the private property owner or FSE. If the City must contain and clean up an SSOs caused by blockage of a private or public sewer lateral or system serving a FSE, or at the request of the property owner or operator of the FSE, or because of the failure of the property owner or FSE to abate the condition causing immediate threat of injury to the health, safety, welfare, or property of the public, the City’s costs for such abatement shall be borne by the property owner or operator of the FSE, and individual(s) as a responsible officer or owner of the FSE(s) and shall constitute a debt to the City and become due and payable upon the City’s request for reimbursement of such costs.
(Ord. 17-04)
It is tempting to dispose of cooking oil in a garden or compost pile. But, disposing of oil there will attract rodents and insects and eventually make its way into aquifers or the municipal sewer system.
The best way for a commercial kitchen to get rid of used cooking oil is to call a recycling company like Phoenix Pumping and have them pick up and recycle your oil to produce biodiesel or renewable diesel fuel, cleaner burning fuels that greatly reduce the production of greenhouse gases.
According to the EPA used cooking oil has similar effects to petroleum based oil when spilled on land. It can destroy existing food supplies, breeding animals, and animal habitats. It can catch fire and produce numerous toxic products. So, all used cooking oil should be recycled responsibly. Use a company like Phoenix Pumping to recycle your cooking oil.
Hamburger grease should be drained and placed in your used cooking oil recycling bin. Rendered grease from meats can be recycled just like used cooking oil.
When hamburger grease builds up on the top of a stove that is trouble. Various cleansers and degreasers can be used to remove the offending grease. Here are some products for removing grease.
Similarly, range hoods get greasy buildup from splatters from frying foods. The best solution is to keep them clean by wiping them down daily. As grease builds up try soap and water with a gentle cloth. If further cleaning is needed try a degreaser like Formula 409.
For greasy range hoods, Phoenix Pumping provides specialized professional hood cleaning service. Greasy hoods are a major source of restaurant fires.
Restaurants dispose of used cooking oil by contracting with Phoenix Pumping, a professional collector/recycler of used cooking oil and cleaner of restaurant grease traps.
You should always recycle used cooking oil to prevent damage to the environment and reduce greenhouse gases. Used cooking oil recyclers with sucker trucks collect the oil and transport it to an intermediate recycling facility. At the facility, used cooking oil is filtered to remove suspended substances such as burned foodstuffs. The oil is heated to evaporate the water content. Recyclers carefully measure to determine FFA(free fatty acid levels and MIUs (moisture, insoluble and unsaponifiables). Biodiesel producers won’t buy the oil unless it is less than 10% FFA and less than 2% MIU.
At this point, the recyclers may sell the oil to companies that use it as an ingredient to make biodiesel, renewable diesel, animal feed, plastics such as polypropylene, cosmetics, and sustainable aviation fuel. Because of the demand for fuels that produce fewer greenhouse gases, along with government policies that reward cleaner-burning fuels, most used cooking oil gets recycled into fuel.
A well designed plan, employee training and a professional cooking oil collector are critical to effective restaurant operation. The food service industry suffers losses of $12B per year due to slips, falls and burns, most of which are associated with cooking oil. To run a successful restaurant, you need to keep restaurant employees safe, the kitchen clean and prevent losses. Keeping insurance claims and workman’s comp claims to a minimum is an essential component of operating a successful restaurant. Technology is key to kitchen safety and the financial success of restaurants.
In fact the National Safety Council says:
“Workplace injuries do more than increase your Restaurant Insurance costs. They cost your business in many other ways, such as lost productivity, lower morale, and more. The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates the “total economic costs of work-related deaths and injuries” in 2019 at $171 billion, $1,100 per worker, and $1.2 million per death. Those figures include “income not received or expenses incurred because of fatal and nonfatal PREVENTABLE injuries.”
And the food services industry is not one size fits all. Imagine for a moment the cooking oil recycling challenges that come with kitchen configurations like these:
Phoenix Pumping can customize cooking oil recycling solutions for all of these set ups. We design our solutions to meet the needs of our customers. Give us a call to discuss your particular recycling needs.
A used cooking oil recycling company collects used cooking oil from restaurants using hoses attached to vacuum pumps to vacuum the oil from tanks, which may be either inside or outside the restaurant. Phoenix Pumping transports the used oil to a facility to screen out the solids. The oil is then heated to remove moisture. The oil is then sold to a biodiesel manufacturer to be made into renewable diesel, SAF (sustainable aviation fuel), or maritime fuel.
California has more restaurants per capita than any state in the nation. CARB, California Air Resources Board leads the nation in regulating the disposal and recycling of used cooking oil. Their LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard) drives the regulation for much of the nation because California uses most of the recyclable fuels produced in the United States.
A used cooking oil collection company must keep records of every pickup they make to comply with new rules from the EPA and CARB regarding the sourcing of used cooking oil. These records include (for every pickup), the date, time, address, restaurant name, and volume of oil picked up.
There has been a tremendous amount of fraud in UCO collection and processing. Theft is a major problem. Thieves steal oil during the night and try to sell it. Dishonest operators have introduced cheap virgin oils such as palm oil from Asia Pacific and claim that it is recycled waste oil so as to be eligible for the credits for recycled oil. The regulations are designed to ensure low carbon feedstocks such as used cooking oil are low carbon feedstocks and not a fraudulently produced environmentally damaging oil.
Used cooking oil recycling companies such as Phoenix Pumping will not only collect your used cooking oil but will also clean and maintain your grease traps, clean your kitchen hoods and power wash your waste oil collection area.
Used Cooking Oil is a commodity that has value when it can be recycled into fuel or other products. UCO collectors will often pay a rebate for high-quality UCO available in volume. The value of the UCO varies, like all commodities, and is directly related to credits available from the EPA RFS (Renewable Fuel Standard Program) and California’s LCFS program and to the price of competing diesel fuel.
UCO collectors sometimes pay rebates for used cooking oil or trade grease trap cleaning services for oil collected.
The amount of money, services or products a restaurant is offered is directly tied to the quantity and quality of the oil it produces. Oil contaminated with water or garbage is worth much less—if anything at all—than used cooking oil that has been stored properly with few adulterants. Taking care in storing your oil ensures rain doesn’t get in, foodstuffs are not dumped in the oil and other steps ensure you deliver a high-quality oil.
The highest quality oil from restaurants comes from indoor automated collection storage systems.
UCO varies in price with competing feedstocks such as soybean oil. The final product, often renewable diesel, varies in price with regular diesel and other fuels. The credits available for UCO-produced fuels from the EPA and CARB also affect the price of UCO.
Understanding biofuels, SAF and maritime fuels fully, might require degrees in chemical engineering and economics.
The benefits and the case for biodiesel and renewable diesel are clear. They reduce air pollution and the gases that trap heat and contribute to global warming. They can be made from crops such as soybean and corn but the very best low-carbon fuel is made from waste cooking oil. (Soybean and corn divert land from growing crops to land producing feedstocks for fuel.)
Biodiesel is the older fuel and it must be blended into regular diesel fuel typically with a % from 5 to 20. Renewable diesel is made from a different chemical process and is known as a “drop-in” fuel because it performs exactly as regular diesel, doesn’t need blending, and provides an even greater reduction of greenhouse gases up to 85%.
SAF and maritime fuels are in their infancy but have great promise. Airlines in the US and Europe have already begun flying with SAF.
Issues that all of these fuels face are acquiring feedstocks (to make the fuel) which are sustainable, cost-effective and readily available. The pathway by which the feedstock is made has a huge impact on the climate benefits that a sustainable fuel provides.
The best cooking oil is the one that produces the most flavorful food, has the greatest longevity, and provides the best health benefits at the lowest cost. Nearly impossible to determine? Yes. One has to consider price, flavor, foods to be fried, frying temperature, the health effects, and how long it lasts. Als,o factors such as filtering and polishing the oil for reuse and the kitchen practices used (seasoning and turning off burners) come into play.
McDonald’s is said to use a blend of canola, corn, and soybean oil. Wendy’s cooks its fries in corn oil. Burger Kings uses a blend of soybean and cottonseed oil. Chick-Fil-A uses a blend of canola and peanut oils. KFC uses a blend of canola and soybean oils. Quite often, a restaurant will use a different oil for different foods. It may use one type of oil for french fries and another to cook fish. Blending of several oils to achieve specific properties is commonplace among large chains.
Solid shortening is more often used in baking. Historically it is high in trans-fats but changes in formulations have made low trans-fat solid shortening available.
Cooking oil is highly flammable. The flash point, which is the temperature at which an oil produces vapors that when exposed to high heat can cause a fire, varies for different oils.
Cooking oils and their vapors are a major source of fires in kitchens. In most vegetable oils flashpoint occurs around 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
This is one of the reasons it is important to have standard operating procedures in the kitchen and to know the flash point temperatures of the oils you are using. Here are a few tips to prevent an oil fire and deal with one should it occur:
UCO transport and recycling is managed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The regulations state:
It is unlawful for any person to engage in the transportation of IKG (Inedible Kitchen Grease) without being registered with the CDFA/MPESB and without being in possession of a valid registration certificate issued by the CDFA/MPESB. A licensed renderer, licensed collection center, registered transporter, or any other person may NOT take possession of IKG from an unregistered transporter or knowingly take possession of stolen IKG.
The penalties for violations are significant. Restaurants should always use a licensed UCO collector.
Any person who is found guilty of violating the rules and regulations of the Inedible Kitchen Grease Program is subject to imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both imprisonment and fine. If the conviction is a second or subsequent conviction of a violation or the violation is committed with intent to defraud or mislead, the person is subject to imprisonment in the state prison, or a fine of not more than fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), or both imprisonment and fine.
Choosing the right used cooking oil recycling company is very important to the success of a restaurant, hotel, casino, or stadium. The wrong one can be a disaster. Imagine what happens if you arrive at your restaurant with full UCO tanks and a backed-up grease trap. Here are the questions to ask when looking for a UCO company. Or if your UCO/Grease Trap Company is not accessible when you have an emergency.
How long have they been in business?
10 years is good. When oil prices are high, fly-by-nighters enter the business and then disappear when prices go down. You want a company with longevity and a solid track record.
Do they have references?
Call and speak to an existing client.
Do they have sufficient liability insurance?
Get a copy and ensure it is at least $1MM per occurrence.
Do they provide grease trap services?
Having one vendor that does both UCO collection and grease trap is especially convenient. One phone call to make. One vendor to manage.
Can you reach the CEO at any time?
This is a big one. No one wants to reach a call center at 1:00 am and wait while they try to find someone who can make a decision. You want the CEOs number and 24/7 access.
Why should I use Phoenix Pumping for UCO collection and grease trap cleaning?
Phoenix Pumping has been in business in Southern California for more than a decade. We are fully licensed and insured for grease trap cleaning and cooking oil collection and our staff are all highly trained professionals. We provide 24/7 emergency service. We know and adhere to state and local regulations and will keep your food service establishment in compliance.
We provide all the services needed by busy restaurants including:
We are easy to do business with.
For UCO collection just give us a call. We can drop off an oil collection bin and begin service immediately. If you have other needs such as indoor systems, oil transport tools such as ecotubs or shortening shuttles just give us a call and we’ll come to your facility and discuss your options.
For grease trap/grease interceptor cleaning or hood cleaning send us a note from the website or call 858-437-9438.
Contact us now and we’ll get you scheduled asap!
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