Chinatown restaurants urged to recycle oil

Residents and restaurant owners in San Francisco’s Chinatown are encouraged to recycle their cooking oil as part of The City’s Greasecycle Program that turns used cooking oil into biofuel.

The City’s Public Utilities Commission and District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin will visit Chinatown Tuesday to promote signing up for the program, the utility commission said Monday.

Peskin and Harlan Kelly, general manager of the utility commission, are scheduled to speak at the Hong Kong Clay Pot restaurant at 2 p.m. followed by a merchant walk through Chinatown.

Restaurants and food service establishments can sign up for the program for free collection of their used cooking oil. Fats, oil and grease clog the city’s sewer system, costing more than $3.5 million annually in maintenance, according to the commission.

The program serves more than 800 San Francisco restaurants and has collected and recycled more than three million gallons of grease. More information is available at sfgreasecycle.org.