Instead of bringing an apple for teacher, students in Montgomery, Alabama schools will be encouraged to bring in used cooking oil that the city’s public schools will turn into biodiesel to run their school buses.
The Montgomery Advertiser reports it’s part of a new initiative where the school has partnered with Alabama State University and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries to figure out a green way to run the district’s school buses, school maintenance vehicles and equipment:
State Reps. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery, and John Knight, D-Montgomery, along with officials from ASU, the state agriculture department and Montgomery schools, on Wednesday praised the initiative as cost-saving and efficient. The officials gathered at the Center for Alternative Fuels at the State Farmers Market to announce the new project.
The group also rode a Montgomery school bus fueled by biodiesel made at the center, which is operated by the Department of Agriculture and Industries.
Each member of the coalition will play a role in seeing that used cooking oil donated by Montgomery schoolchildren and saved from school cafeterias makes its way to the biodiesel production facility at the Center for Alternative Fuels.
School officials expect to save $43,000 a year in fuel costs PLUS another $20,000 annually that it won’t have to spend on having the old cooking oil from the cafeteria hauled away.