A bus company is offering discount bus travel in return for used cooking oil to power its bio-fueled fleet in a ground-breaking pilot scheme in the U.K.. Households along the Service 1 bus route in Kilmarnock, Scotland have been given free containers to collect their used oil in, which they can exchange for discount travel vouchers at their local recycling plant.
A fleet of eight single-deck buses, operated by the Stagecoach Group Plc., have been fitted with dual fuel tanks for the trial scheme. The buses will warm up for around ten minutes in the morning using mineral diesel (it's cold in Scotland). Once a normal engine operating temperature is achieved, the buses will then switch to bio-fuel made from cooking oil and other food industry by-products for the remainder of the day. It's estimated that the initiative will cut CO2 emissions by 82%.
"This innovative project is a great opportunity for our customers to play their part in saving the planet by recycling household products that would otherwise go to waste," says Stagecoach Group Chief Executive, Brian Souter. "I'm sure the idea of cheaper travel in exchange for the used contents of your chip pan will capture people's imagination."
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