Last week, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer joined the owners of Russ & Daughters for the first pickup of used cooking oil that will be turned into biodiesel fuel through the Go Green! Cooking Oil Recycling Program.

The pair held a press conference in front of Russ & Daughters to announce the launch of this fantastic new program which will provide businesses with containers for storing used cooking oil. The used oil will be picked up by the Doe Fund’s RWA (Ready, Willing and Able) Resource Recovery Team, a nonprofit organization that finds work for formerly homeless individuals and ex-prisoners. The oil will then be converted into clean-burning biodiesel. Another partner in the program is The Lower East Side Ecology Center, which is leading the educational outreach for the Go Green! Initiative as a part of EcoBizNYC, which promotes sustainability in small businesses.

Niki Russ Federman said “Russ & Daughters is delighted to be a part of this initiative, and we would like to thank Shelly Silver for reaching out to us. This wonderfully conceived program encourages green business practices, promotes sustainable energy production, provides jobs and makes it easy for businesses to participate, whether it’s a large restaurant or a specialty shop like Russ & Daughters.” We don’t actually use much cooking oil at all, except for during Chanukah, when we make fresh latkes a few times a day.

Speaker Silver said, “This is the beginning of a great relationship between business, community and government that will clean our air of harmful fumes and clear our waters of waste cooking oil. This program will instantly provide positive change to our environment and community and I encourage all businesses with waste oil to sign up.”

The program plans to expand to other neighborhoods  – East Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood – in the next few weeks.  Read more about the launch of the Cooking Oil Recycling Program in The Villager.