Today’s entry from Greenbang’s special report on UK Clean Tech Start-up businesses is about Proper Oils, just one of the many companies found in the report.

• Founder/Chief Executive: StephenHurton
• Founding date: February 2007
• Number of employees: 4
• Turnover: £120,000
• Website: www.properoils.co.uk

Collecting used cooking oil from caterers and turning it into biodiesel may sound like a slippery business proposition, but it’s working for Proper Oils. The company takes the used oil, refines it into biodiesel, then sells the fuel locally. Not only does this help to reduce congestion and pollution, it also cuts down on collection and distribution costs. The company is already collecting cooking oil from some 700 caterers.

The Greenbang Barometer

One problem is that this biodiesel may be more expensive than mineral diesel because there is a finite amount of local waste cooking oil. Still, caterers and customers are happy with the system because the CO2 saving per caterer or customer can actually be calculated.

What’s more, Proper Oils then helps its partners with marketing their own sustainability credentials. Also pretty unique, Greenbang thinks, is the fact that all the action takes place in a curtained articulated lorry trailer. So, no building costs, no expensive ventilation needed and it recycles an old lorry trailer.

Tags: Clean Tech Start-up Index, Proper Oils