Green up your grease

The 3.5 litre containers feature a built in filter to remove any scraps of food leftover in the cooking oil.

For safety reasons wait until the oil is cool and pour it straight into the container.

When the container is full, simply bring it to your local recycling centre and empty it into the large container for recycling.

Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey, Councillor Thomas Hogg said: “Pouring oil down the sink not only causes blocked drains which can be a nightmare to fix, but it is also extremely harmful to the environment.

“This is why we want to encourage local people to collect their waste cooking oil and bring it to their local recycling centre for safe disposal. “

Good quality oil can be expensive as well so we should be careful not to use more oil than we need to cook something.

If a recipe calls for a lot of oil to fry something why not reuse the oil?

You’ll know when it’s coming near the end of its reusable life as it will start to foam.

Oil can also be cleaned and processed to reuse it as a biofuel.

The great news is that market demand for biofuels is growing so it is now economically viable to converted waste oil to biofuel right here in Northern Ireland.

An extra reason to feel good next time you take your waste oil to the local recycling centre.

Stocks are limited so the containers will be distributed on a first come first serve basis.

To apply for your free oil collection container, simply visit the ‘Recycling Centres’ section of the council website www.antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk