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Green Turkeys

Tulsans will be on their own to figure out what to do with all that leftover turkey in the days after Thanksgiving, but the city is willing to help them out when it comes to getting rid of turkey fryer oil.

The city and the Metropolitan Environmental Trust will be collecting the oil from 10am-3pm on Sunday, Nov. 28 at the MET Recycling Center at 3495 S. Sheridan Road. Giveaways will be handed out to those who drop off any type of used cooking oil that day.

"This opportunity allows residents to get large amounts of used cooking oil out of their homes so that it can be recycled into other usable products," MET executive director Michael Patton stated in a press release. "Recycling your cooking oil removes it from the waste stream so that it can be turned into valuable products like animal feed, biodiesel or even cosmetics."

City officials said that when cooking oil is disposed of improperly, it can create environmental and public health hazards, especially if the oil is disposed of down a household drain or a neighborhood storm drain, where it can clog sewer lines and wreak havoc on local ponds, rivers and streams.

"No matter what time of year, pouring used cooking oil down the drain ends up causing a lot of problems with sewer lines," said Kristi Shreve, an environmental compliance specialist with the city. "It's especially bad around the holidays, when people are washing a lot of fatty and greasy foods down the drain. The fats, oils and grease from food can build up inside the pipes and cause raw sewage to back out of the sewer into people's homes, businesses and the environment."

Used cooking oil can be dropped off at any of the MET's recycling centers around the metro area throughout the year. To find the nearest MET recycling center, visit metrecycle.com.