What do you do with used cooking oil?

I don’t really cook but my grandmother and my mom put it in a jar or coffee tin before throwing it out, so it doesn’t leak all over the garbage.

I throw it out. I rarely deep fry or use so much oil that there is a bunch left over so I don’t feel too badly about ditching it. Plus, isn’t reheated oil carcinogenic? Or, is that an old wives tale?

I put it in a paper cup with a paper towel in the cup too, or put the oil in some sort of container can close, and throw it in the trash.

Sometimes I keep chicken fat or bacon fat when I cook if I know I’m going to use it in a day or two in another dish.

I use it to start my fires in my stove. I pour a little on newspapers and cardboard and stack te logs on top. One match and the stove is roaring in minutes. Oil is excellent fire starter.
Also—-
I pour some on bird seeds to give them a little calorie boost in winter. I keep one feeder dry and another “oiled” so the birds can choose whichever they like.

@LuckyGuy‘s Restaurant!

I usually dump it in the fire pit in the backyard.

I do both suggestions @LuckyGuy made. Excellent fire starter especially when you soak kindling in used oil. Latke cooking oil would be ideal for coating bird seed as it does not contain meat fat that can turn rancid in a hurry.

I pour it in an old jar, which I throw out when full.

Down
The
Drain

where else.

I don’t save used oil, no. I wait til it cools, then pour it into a plastic bag with a wad of paper towels, tie it off and pitch it.

My grandpa put it on bread and ate it.

I don’t use much oil. I give my leftovers to the dogs. It’s good for their coats.

The only grease I save is bacon grease, which I keep in the fridge, and butter that I’ve sauteed onions in, also saved in the fridge. It is SOOO god on garlic bread!

@Coloma NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Why not just store it till you have a whole thing full, then dump it out in the woods somewhere, far from the house?! Why put it in a non-biodegradable container and throw it in the land fill?

Landfills are still a thing? My county and every other one I know of burns trash for energy.

@Dutchess_III Because I basically never fry foods, ever, maybe a couple times in years now. I used to make french fries on occasion but now I do oven fries. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I threw out oil, and a plastic bag isn’t any worse than a milk carton or a peanut butter jar. I use plastic bags to scoop my cats litter boxes too

I recycle everything else but plastic bags get used, it is what it is.

Out here there’s an expanding crowd of folks using the stuff as fuel in diesel vehicles. The day is coming (if it isn’t here already) when places like KFC or McDonald’s will be selling their used grease. Various places including the local Costco allow you to drop off used oil for collection

If your milk carton or peanut butter jar are plastic then you’re right. They’re all just as bad. But why does the grease have to be thrown away in any kind of container at all, @Coloma? Why not take your peanut butter jar or whatever, dump the grease out of it for the critters, then bring the jar in and rinse it and reuse it?

@Dutchess_III I recycle everything but some plastic bags, like I said above, I haven’t had grease to dispose of forever, and I donlt need to keep around empty peanut butter jars, just more clutter I won’t use.

I usually funnel the stuff back into the same sort of containers in which the oil is originally packaged.

@stanleybmanly That’s what I did. Do you re-use it then or throw it out?

@janbb Not usually. But then again, I don’t fry a lot of stuff. I have reused oil before when the grandsons wanted chicken & pecan waffles 2 days in a row. We strained the oil through a funnel equipped with a sieve.

I googled a little and it looks like reusing oil, reheating it, is carcinogenic. I’m not sure if you’re concerned about it, if you rarely do it, we all do things that are potentially carcinogenic here and there, but knowing that maybe you feel more comfortable throwing it out.

i did throw it out, thanks. We used to fry more although still not a lot when I was married – now I hardly ever do. This was my once a year latkes fry for Chanukah.

You threw it out? You’re killing me!
Clearly, more people need (high efficiency) wood burning stoves.

Darn it. I had a Great Grease story, but this is in General. Poo.

Well, as soon as the pan cools I’ll be recycling bacon grease through my doggies. They love Sundays as much as I do!