For Details about Project Manager position please click here.
Objectives of IF’s WVO initiative:
- To Upcycle the Waste Vegetable Oil on Gabriola Island
- To create a viable, sustainable, circular economy initiative for WVO on Gabriola that could be replicated and scaled up in the Nanaimo Regional District and beyond
- To promote the production of biodiesel, replacing diesel.
- To produce a purer glycerine, liquid soap, recovered methanol, and potassium fertilizer.
- To use WVO to heat a greenhouse throughout the winter, analysing the cost benefit to determine viability for greenhouses throughout the RDN.
Read full proposal here
Background:
From 2016 to 2021 Island Futures Society (IF) used the waste vegetable oil (WVO) from Gabriola Island restaurants to make biodiesel, which was then been used to fuel the GERTIE community buses. Due to purchases of buses in 2021 that cannot use the biodiesel there was a need to rethink how to re-purpose the waste vegetable oil, while continuing its use as part of the circular economy. There are currently about 7,000 litres per year of waste vegetable oil disposed of by Gabriola restaurants. There is also residential WVO (~ 100 litres) that many Gabriolans were contributing to IF to make the Biodiesel. We feel it is important to treat this as a valuable local resource and are aiming to divert all of this WVO and use it to replace fossil fuels.