A group of British eco-enthusiasts have just completed their journey from London to Athens powered solely by contributions of waste vegetable oil.
The `Grease to Greece` car rally took 11 days, covered over 2,500 miles, and relied solely on the generosity of restaurant owners for fuel. In what has been termed the `greenest and grubbiest` car rally ever, the team made their way across Europe with unexpected ease, arriving in Athens last Wednesday. According to team members, owners of eating establishments across the continent were more than happy to part with their unwanted waste.
"I think we can safely say that this is the first long-distance car journey in Europe that has relied on restaurants and burger bars as an informal network of filling stations," said Andy Pag, the organiser of the rally.
In total eight teams took part in the trip, driving vehicles ranging from a brand new Renault to a 13 year old taxi. Some of the cars had been converted to run on vegetable oil, others used a process whereby oil was converted to biodiesel via a portable `fuel pod`.
Pag said: "true we spent a lot of time fat-finding, knocking on the doors of restaurants begging for their waste, but it worked. And the beauty, of course, is that when such supplies are collected straight from a restaurant and used as fuel they have a zero-carbon footprint,"
The group's aim is to encourage people to think more about alternative fuels by illustrating their potential. Pag made news in the autumn of last year after he drove from London to Timbuktu in a lorry powered by biodiesel produced from rejected confectionary (mainly chocolate).
"I think we made quite a lot of converts along the way," said Pag. "There's a whole trail out there of restaurant owners who are now looking at their waste products with different eyes. Our hope is that others will start to realise the energy that is in waste, too."
Guardian, YouTube - Grease is the Word!
