More grease please! Vegawatt generator taunts healthy food

Is it another energy solution or is it a cover-up for an even bigger problem? The idea of using grease and oil to generate energy is certainly enticing. Restaurants that use large amounts of oil for deep frying and cooking create storehouses of used oil that is barreled and deemed hazardous. Once a chemical is labeled hazardous restaurants must follow laws and guidelines to get rid of the waste, and that creates additional costs. Crafting a solution that generates electricity while taking care of the old oil is a win-win situation, right? Maybe not.

Restaurants have been getting away with disposing more and more harmful oil into the environment because customers are eating the oil-drenched, fatty foods that sustain them. It is ridiculous to think that as our economy sinks, McDonalds builds even stronger profit margins. According to the Herald Tribune, McDonalds’ revenue increased to $6.08 billion from a previous $5.84 billion in the second quarter of 2008. The only way to combat increased oil use is to push for sustainable practices that reduce waste in restaurants like McDonalds.

To do so, restaurants must first cut back on oil use. Dumping gallons and gallons of grease into a generator that converts the oil into electricity only solves half the problem. The Vegawatt generator that was developed in James Peret’s garage can create as much as 5 kilowatts of energy for every 80 gallons of grease that is dumped into the machine. The problem, however, is that restaurants will be encouraged to use even more oil because, after all, it is creating energy. The result will be another source of carbon emissions from oil-rich, greasy restaurants. We can hardly afford more carbon emissions.

The Vegawatt generator can certainly be helpful in the future, but only after restaurants first attempt to decrease the amount of oil they use in their foods. It starts with consumers who need to put the pressure on so-called “green” restaurants. The generator should be a great solution to dispose of the limited amount of oil that is left, that restaurants absolutely must use in their foods.