CONCERNING Thames Water’s problem with ‘fatbergs’ in Oxford city centre, it should copy an innovative scheme run by Yorkshire Water to avoid creating them.
Yorkshire Water in collaboration with a local community centre introduced a ‘fats to fuel’ scheme in one of the most problematic areas of Bradford for fatbergs. Eighty five sewage blockages took place in Bradford Moor between 2011-2014.
However, after the scheme was launched in 2014 there was only one recorded blockage up to August 2015.
The scheme involves asking local residents in the area to collect their waste cooking oil in tubs, known as ‘fat vats’. These fat vats, once full, are then collected from residents’ doorsteps, with the cooking oil sold to renewable energy companies to refine and turn into carbon neutral bio fuel.
In January of this year, the scheme was expanded to include the students of the University of Bradford in ‘The Green’, a sustainable student village.
We should be introducing our own Oxford fats to fuel scheme and turning a problem into a renewable resource.
Thames Water already has an arrangement to provide fats and oils from restaurants to the world’s world’s first industrial-scale plant run on FOGs (fats, oil and grease) the power station at Beckton in East London. Why not develop a similar facility in Oxfordshire?
HAZEL DAWE
Oxfordshire Green Party
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