Used Cooking Oil or "UCO'' are oils originating from household, commercial or industrial food processing operations, that have been used for cooking or frying.UCO from households, food premises such as cafeterias and restaurants are among the main contributors to water pollution. Pollution originating from UCO occurs due to:

1)    UCO that are thrown into the sink can clog drains and sewers, ruin septic tanks.

2)    The freezing method of UCO into solid state and throwing it along with solid waste and lastly end up in the landfill. The problem here is at a certain temperature the solidified oil will melt and pollute the landfills.

The most significant problem that occurs from the improper management of UCO is indeed the environmental issues, particularly in water and soil pollution. When UCO ultimately ends up reaching the natural water reserves, it is severely harming aquatic and marine life. It has been found to kill the fishes, birds, plants and other aquatic life forms by coating them with oily layers, literally reducing their ability to breathe, thus choking them to death.

There is better way to manage UCO by recycling them. This approach has environmental and economic benefits. In brief, public can sell UCO to the UCO recycling agencies for biofuel production as a sustainable replacement for petroleum-based diesel. As for environmental benefits, there will be less pollution from reduced disposal of UCO and less natural resource extraction for diesel production. In terms of economic benefits, public can generate extra income from recycling their UCO. The current selling price of UCO in Malaysia is around RM1.50-RM2.50 kilogram.

However, not many knows about the benefits of recycling UCO. The awareness among public is still lacking. For that reason, we have to instil their awareness on recycling UCO for the betterment of the environment and as well for the better livelihood of the public. Hence a program will be held to provide awareness and knowledge to the public on recycling UCO. As a pilot program, the focus of this program will be a residential community in Kem Tun Ibrahim, Kajang. 

The awareness campaign regarding recycling activity of used cooking will be held as a forum to spread awareness to the community. Among activities will be held are:

1. Distribution of pre and post questionnaire survey

There will be distribution of the pre questionnaire survey at the beginning of the campaign and post questionnaire survey at the end of the awareness program. The significance of this activity is to measure the changes in participants’ knowledge and awareness on UCO recycling after they participate in the program.

2. Awareness campaign by the undergrad Environmental Management students

Undergrad Environmental Management students will give a presentation to expose participants with the harms of UCO towards the environment. This will relate to the public roles to do their part to reduce disposal of UCO by recycling for environmental protection.

3.Machinery demonstration by key partner on “ Biodiesel production from UCO”

The key partner for this programme would be the UCO collection/recycling company. They will make demonstrations on how to handle UCO at home to educate participants on how to collect the UCO, the storage method of UCO at home and how to engage with the UCO collection company to recycle the UCO. 

The key partner as well will demonstrate the process of recycling the UCO into biodiesel. Participants will be exposed to the actual machinery process to produce biodiesel from UCO (Please refer Figure 1). This will give them a clear understanding on how their UCO will be used for another purpose.

Figure 1: machine for Biodiesel production from UCO

4. Activities

Activities will be an attractive session comprising soap making activity, exhibition by the key partner and as well exciting games. 

Undergrad Environmental Management students will be organizing soap making activities where participants can make their own soap from UCO. This is an alternative on how to reuse the UCO for personal usage, or better, for side income generation. 

The key partner will have their booth to further explain on the UCO recycling procedures and monetary benefits/incentives they will gain from recycling UCO. This is important to encourage  participants’ interest to recycle UCO since they can generate extra income from recycling UCO or becoming agents to the recycling company. 

Series of games will be conducted to make the program interesting. Arcade games like roulette, quizzes and others to be decided will be held to test participants’ knowledge on issues circulating around UCO. Prizes will be given to winners. Sponsorship will be obtained to cover the costs of prizes.

5. Collection of used cooking oil

After a month of the project, we will collect the used cooking oil produce and collected by the participants of Kem Tun Ibrahim.

1. Community

1. Able to raise awareness regarding the harm of poor management of used cooking oil.
2. Able to improve their knowledge on how to recycle used cooking oil.
3. Able to encourage them to participate in used cooking oil recycling for the long term.

     B) Collector/Industry

1. Able to obtain a source for biodiesel production.
2. Promoting circular economy for sustainability.