Cooking oil recycled into fuel

Old cooking oil is bringing new fuel to Muskogee. A revolutionary recycling program is turning last night's waste into fuel that can power your car.

This year alone five local cities have signed up for the program. On Saturday, Muskogee unveiled their drop off center. City leaders said it's a great way to Go Green.

The used cooking oil is liquid gold for Todd Stephens.

"You can't pour it down the drain, cause it'll clog up your pipes, and it's really dangerous to put it anywhere else," said Stephens.

Stephens runs Tulsa BioFuel, a company that coverts oil into diesel fuel.

"This is a waste product that a lot of people have. A lot of people have fryers, a lot of people fry food when they have get togethers, and they just never had anywhere to go with it," said Stephens.

He opened his fifth drop-off center Saturday in Muskogee. Sand Springs, Tulsa, Jenks and Claremore are already on board.

"They're taking an abundant waste product, it's icky, it's nasty, it's hard to deal with, and they're turning it into something that will help improve air quality in the city, and also provide a local, renewable, clean-burning fuel," said Stephens.

In March, Stephens put his money where his mouth is and showed us that his own car runs on the stuff. That impressed Muskogee Public Works Director Francie Martin.

"Sanitation picks up a lot of cooking oil, and the trash bins, that leak out onto our city streets, causing clean up problems, that's one. Also, its filling up our landfill," said Martin.

There's another benefit, bio-diesel also burns 70 percent cleaner than regular gas.

It's a fuel that powers cars and keeps her city streets clean.

Stephens said that he's able to sell bio-diesel at a lower rate than consumers pay at the pump. He said he wants to have a drop-off box in every municipality within 60 miles of Tulsa.

He said he's in talks with Owasso and Bartlesville to bring this program there in the near future.