Recycle used cooking oil at annual Gobble Grease Toss
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 20, 2025) — Lexington residents can help advance biofuel research at the University of Kentucky by recycling used cooking oil at the 16th annual Gobble Grease Toss.
The event will be 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, at Redwood Cooperative School, 166 Crestwood Drive in Lexington.
Cooking oil should never be poured down sink drains, as it can clog pipes in both your home and the sewer system. This event helps recycle hundreds of gallons of cooking oil.
Residents can bring cooking and vegetable oil only (no food or motor oil) in a disposable, hard-sided container with a lid to prevent spills. Do not bring cooking oil in a bag.
What’s collected will be used for biofuel research and production through a community partnership with the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), Kelley Green Biofuel, Redwood Cooperative School and the city of Lexington.
“UK CAER is excited to participate in this longstanding event and partnership, which has diverted thousands of gallons of grease away from sewers and landfills toward renewable fuel research and production,” said Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, Ph.D., associate director of CAER’s Sustainable and Alternative Fuels group and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry in the UK College of Arts and Sciences.
The Gobble Grease Toss is free for all Fayette County residents. Businesses are not eligible for this service. Please have your disposable, hard-sided container in your trunk. Remain in your car and a volunteer will remove the oil for you.
If you cannot make it to the Gobble Grease Toss, you can properly dispose of cooking oil by hardening it in the refrigerator or freezer and placing it in the trash. You can also save oil from other times of the year (in a closed container) and save it for next year’s Gobble Grease Toss.
For more information on the Gobble Grease Toss, call LexCall at 311 or 859-425-2255 or visit www.LexingtonKY.gov/GobbleGreaseToss.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.