In the quest for sustainable practices within the food industry, Restaurant Technologies stands out as a pioneer, transforming the way used cooking oil is managed across the U.S. With a vast network serving over 45,000 restaurants, grocers, hotels, casinos, universities, and hospitals, the company has made significant strides in reducing waste. Annually, they prevent 300 million pounds of used oil from entering landfills, alongside removing oil-related plastic and cardboard waste that would otherwise occupy 7.5 million cubic feet of landfill space.
In this interview, CEO Jeff Kiesel shares insights on the vital role that innovative oil management and sustainability practices play in shaping a greener future.
Innovation & Tech Today: What impact has your recycling program had on reducing waste and emissions?
Jeff Kiesel: Restaurant Technologies is a leading provider of automated cooking-oil management and back-of-house hood and exhaust cleaning solutions for quick-service and full-service restaurant chains, independent restaurants, grocery delis, hotels, resorts, casinos, convenience stores, universities, and hospitals.
At our core, we are a business dedicated to advancing sustainability — for our customers, communities, and ourselves. Minimizing our impact on the environment while enabling customers to carry out their own sustainability efforts not only aligns with our core values but is also a key driver of our business strategy.
Working with our customers, we deliver cooking oil in bulk, manage, and optimize individual customer oil usage, and then pick up used oil to properly recycle it. Our technicians pump out used cooking oil from their used oil tanks and into our truck. We bring the leftover oil from their commercial kitchen back to our depots, where it’s taken to be recycled into renewable fuel.
In 2023, we recycled 314.1 million pounds of waste oil, saved eight million cubic feet of landfill space taken up by cardboard and plastic packaging, and avoided 72.3 million pounds of GHG emissions. Through proper oil management, delivery, and recycling, fryer oil can even be refined and reused as biofuel, creating a circular economy.
I&T Today: How does turning used cooking oil into biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel help the environment?
Kiesel: Once we collect used cooking oil from commercial kitchens, it is filtered to create feedstock oil. Feedstock oil is traditionally produced from dedicated crops, but by recycling a waste stream such as cooking oil, we can reduce the competing consumption of these food crops. The recycled feedstock oil can is processed into both biodiesel and renewable diesel. Last year, we avoided the emissions equivalent of 107,824 cars and converted more than 314 million pounds of used oil into renewable diesel or biodiesel. We are working towards running our fleet of trucks on both biodiesel and renewable diesel to create a circular economy.
I&T Today: What are the biggest sustainability challenges restaurants face, and how do you help them?
Kiesel: Traditional oil management is time-consuming and dangerous. It also creates lots of extra plastic and cardboard waste, not to mention the 3 billion pounds of oil waste that
hotels and restaurants generate annually. By delivering cooking oil to customers in bulk, we eliminate nearly all the plastic, cardboard, and residual oil. We also optimize individual customer oil usage through our TOM portal, which helps restaurant employees use oil to its full potential while maintaining a structured filtration schedule to ensure oil quality. We automate some of the most challenging and wasteful parts of the restaurant industry. In 2023, we saved 17.4 million oil jugs and 26.6 million pounds of trash.
I&T Today: Are there any new technologies in oil recycling that you’re excited about?
Kiesel: At our partners’ facilities, the waste oil undergoes a hydrotreating process where it is treated with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. This process converts the oils and fats into hydrocarbons similar to those found in petroleum diesel. Renewable diesel has an even lower carbon content and does not produce as many harmful emissions. It can be used as a direct replacement for conventional diesel, offering excellent performance and compatibility with all diesel engines. Some of our used cooking oil supply goes to renewable diesel production, emphasizing our commitment to producing the most sustainable fuel options available. We strive to utilize biodiesel and renewable diesel in our fleet, creating a closed-loop process from the delivery of fresh oil to the use of recycled oil in the form of biodiesel and renewable diesel in our own vehicles.
