Proper discard of large quantities of rancid oil

[Stephd31]

Good morning!

I have three rancid oils that I need to discard olive, sweet almond, and castor. They're all in the Soapers Choice cubitainer w/ faucet, but there is probably only about one or two pounds of each oil remaining in the cubitainer. Usually, I use up the entire batch, try my hardest to open the box, remove the bag, recycle the box (if it's not oily), and toss it. However, this is such a large quantity of oil; it makes me nervous about tossing. I am in the USA, and I have looked on my local city and trash removal sites, neither say anything other than sealing the oil in a container and throwing it away. To me, it seems like they didn't plan for a person like me throwing out several pounds of oil at a time. Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you!

Stephanie

 

[TheGecko]

Best to call and ask.

 

[Stephd31]

Best to call and ask.

Thanks Gecko! I'll do that.

It looks like I'm waiting until May 18th for disposal. That's when my city has the next hazardous waste drive. They also recommended contacting local restaurants to see if they would include my oil with their discarded fryer oil.

 

[DawnHoff]

In Spain they use it to make soap

 

[Stephd31]

In Spain they use it to make soap

What about DOS and the smell?

 

[DawnHoff]

I dont know what DOS is, but I have made frying oil soap before and I don't think it smells (actually been very surpised by how the smells changes as soon as you add the soda). Some of the soap has been quite foul tbh.

 

[KimW]

Oh, bummer! Ugh. As much as I HATE to throw consumables away, when I have a smaller amount - say up to 1/2 gallon - I'll either throw it out, because it's too much effort to clean that small amount of liquid oils, or I'll make soap and then salt it out. With large amounts of rancid oils I clean them in a salt bath, just as one would render lard, and then use them for soap. To make it easier to remove the cleaned oil from the water, I salt out the liquid oil with a measured and recorded amount of hard oil, like coconut oil, at a 1:3 (1 part hard oil to 3 parts liquid oil). Then, I try to use it soon for soap. My point is, while I actually enjoy salting out soap and cleaning oils, I've always found it burdensome to clean rancid liquid oils and salting out rancid soap takes many sessions to clean. I like the idea of asking a local restaurant if they'll take your rancid oil though!

You've already surmised, and @DawnHoff has already touched on, the problem of soaping with rancid oils. Even if the soap doesn't show visible signs of rancidity (DOS), the soap will usually be rancid (say "usually" but I've never had a batch made with even slightly off oil not produce rancid soap) and smell of rancid oil, if not when it's dry then it will when it's used. Perhaps a very heavy FO could mask the smell, but who'd want that? LOL

 

[Stephd31]

Oh, bummer! Ugh. As much as I HATE to throw consumables away, when I have a smaller amount - say up to 1/2 gallon - I'll either throw it out, because it's too much effort to clean that small amount of liquid oils, or I'll make soap and then salt it out. With large amounts of rancid oils I clean them in a salt bath, just as one would render lard, and then use them for soap. To make it easier to remove the cleaned oil from the water, I salt out the liquid oil with a measured and recorded amount of hard oil, like coconut oil, at a 1:3 (1 part hard oil to 3 parts liquid oil). Then, I try to use it soon for soap. My point is, while I actually enjoy salting out soap and cleaning oils, I've always found it burdensome to clean rancid liquid oils and salting out rancid soap takes many sessions to clean. I like the idea of asking a local restaurant if they'll take your rancid oil though!

You've already surmised, and @DawnHoff has already touched on, the problem of soaping with rancid oils. Even if the soap doesn't show visible signs of rancidity (DOS), the soap will usually be rancid (say "usually" but I've never had a batch made with even slightly off oil not produce rancid soap) and smell of rancid oil, if not when it's dry then it will when it's used. Perhaps a very heavy FO could mask the smell, but who'd want that? LOL

Since I plan to discard the oils anyway, maybe I should try to clean my larger batch. I've never done this before and it's probably a good learning process to go through. If I mess up, it won't matter! Thank you for your thoughtful reply, I appreciate it and you've given me something new to try.

It was a bit of a bummer that I ended up with so much. I had to go out of town for a considerable amount of time (6+ months) to care for family and when I came home and finally wanted to make soap, well the oil was rancid. I did get a new shipment from Soapers Choice today and I'm going to try out some new recipes. I am very excited!

 

[KimW]

Isn't it so much fun to try something new - especially when there's nothing to lose?! I can imagine that you're indeed properly excited to also have some nice and fresh oils too. Win-win! Hope your fam is faring well.