Apparent Energy Crisis (or how We’re not Ready for The Future)

As we were cleaning up the house recently, we paused while looking at the three jugs of used up cooking oil sitting in the kitchen: what should we do with these? I bought Murray a deep fryer for Christmas last year: not the healthiest way to cook food, but if you use good oil and cook with it only occasionally, it’s basically irresistible. I don’t know what it is but the richer the food, the yummier it is. Like when in doubt, add some butter and it’ll taste better. Anyhow, Murray likes to cook and when the zucchini flowers were in bloom in the backyard, we did a lot of deep frying. As a result, we accumulated several 4L jugs of post-deep-fryer oil. They were a sludgy eyesore in the kitchen: we had to get rid of them.

The guilt attached to the idea of putting them on the curb was pretty incredible. We had just watched an episode of Mythbusters where they ran a diesel car on used cooking oil. And police cars in Malaysia are set to use discarded oil from McDonald’s restaurants to fuel their fleet. Apparently a regular diesel car with a minor and inexpensive modification can run just fine on cooking oil. And so while we teeter on the brink of an apparent energy crisis, the idea of throwing away what is essentially free fuel presented a real dilemma.

Well, at the end of the day we just put the jugs of oil on the curb. I didn’t even know where to begin researching a more environmentally responsible alternative. The idea was exhausting. I know where to take used batteries, old mobile phones and unwanted clothes. But free fuel, well, we just don’t know what to do with that yet.

Other interesting and unrelated things to read about how the future is moving forward faster than we are:
Google Wireless Plan Angers Audio-Equipment Makers
Register to Vote in the US via XBox Live

One Reply to “Apparent Energy Crisis (or how We’re not Ready for The Future)”

  1. It is really sad that most things that can be reused are always trashed.
    I have wanted to convert a VW diesel to run on oil for years, but like most people the trouble comes down to having to deal with dirty oil. This is why this trend has not picked up on a major scale. And fresh clean cooking oil (which you can use) does cost more per liter then gasoline.

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