Start saving your oil.

Peninsula residents may soon be able to recycle their used cooking oil, if a pilot project is approved by the city of White Rock and restaurant owners jump on board.

Private Lower Mainland company ERM BioSource is partnering with the Recycling Council of B.C. to propose the pilot program, which would enable residents to toss out their used cooking oil (UCO) at select White Rock restaurants and pubs.

ERM BioSource, whose parent company is Next Energy Systems, would take the oil and turn it into biofuel – mainly, biodiesel, which has 80 per cent fewer carbon emissions than regular diesel.

“Used cooking oil, or waste oil, is currently being poured down people’s drains or ending up in the garbage or the backyard,” ERM BioSource program resource manager Robert Greene said last week.

“There is no program in B.C. for UCO disposal at the residential level.”

The company already runs Restaurant Green Zone, which takes UCO from 700 Lower Mainland restaurants – including nearly 20 White Rock eateries – and then processes it into biodiesel.

The company pays between five and seven cents a litre for the oil – which must be non-hydrogenated oil only (no lard), and processes anywhere from 75,000 to 150,000 litres a month.

Greene is hoping the local restaurant and pub owners involved with Restaurant Green Zone will be open to the pilot project, as it depends on business owners offering their properties as UCO drop-off sites.

Greene hopes to measure this area’s results with those in Burnaby, where it was announced last week residents will be able to take their UCO to Burnaby’s Still Creek recycling centre.

The White Rock and Burnaby one-year projects would run concurrently, starting Oct. 1.

“The goal is to measure which services are more successful – restaurants or recycling centres,” Greene said.

“This is a national problem. All eyes will be on B.C. and Burnaby and (if approved) White Rock... everyone will be watching.”

Canbra Foods, Canada’s largest producer of canola oil, has also committed to partner in the pilot, Greene said.

White Rock Coun. Catherine Ferguson, council’s Business Improvement Association representative, said she thinks the pilot project is an excellent idea, but the city needs to hear feedback from local businesses, first.

“There are things to take into consideration, like monitoring to make sure people are dumping the right oil, and if restaurant owners are OK with people coming onto their property to dispose of their oil,” she said.

“I think it’s great if we can turn that nasty oil into energy. If the businesses don’t want to do it, then we need to look at if there’s a way the city can facilitate (the pilot project).