Greensboro, NC -- Leftover cooking oil from restaurants could help your children go to school and improve our air quality.
The Guilford County Board of Education gave the go ahead on Tuesday to start planning to use biodiesel in about 50 school buses.
Guilford County Schools (GCS) is buying the cooking oil waste used for the biofuel from a vendor. They are going to mix the waste with different amounts of fuel to find the right concentration for buses.
"The positive impact on the health of children, the community and the environment must be considered as a primary reason for using biodiesel," said Jeff Harris, Director of Transportation. "Biodiesel has the potential of becoming a prominent energy source in school buses on a national level in the future because it is a renewable energy source."
There are concerns that switching to biodiesel could mean more maintenance on the buses, so this will be monitored as they test through the spring.
"As with any new product, we must make sure we put procedures in place and follow those guidelines in order to see positive results," said Harris. "We will move slowly and test biodiesel to develop a process that works in GCS before diving in on a larger scale."
Right now GCS spend about $4 million a year on diesel fuel, but during the test period there won't be any additional funds to buy biodiesel.