We, at Rebirth, want to earn your business in New Orleans and Baton Rouge by performing every day. We don’t require punitive long term contracts that self renew. Instead, we give you a 30 day guarantee cancellation policy. If you need a prompt response, call or text Al Johnson – owner, directly at 985-778-3104 day or night 24/7.
When we recycle your used cooking oil, we keep our hoses, trucks and bins clean. Our container is an extension of your kitchen . So we make sure every container is lightly cleaned each time we pickup your used cooking oil or we replace it with a clean, fresh container.
Our company strives to solve problems before they arise. Every time your restaurant’s used cooking oil is picked up, we evaluate the pickup cycle to make sure our staff is arriving the next time when the container is at 80% full.
If you need special emergency service, we’re here 24/7. Just call the owner, Al. No “customer engagement” centers or foreign phone banks. Your problem will be handled promptly. If you need your used cooking oil picked up right away, we’ll be there.
If you’re in Southern Louisiana we can handle your cooking oil recycling and your grease trap cleaning. From Picayune to Patterson to Lake Charles and everywhere in between, we’ve got you covered. Organizations like the Archdiocese of New Orleans and St. Tammany School System trust us to service 100+ school locations spread throughout Southern Louisiana.
Quality service ensures our clients stay for the long run.
We offer automated systems that save you money.
Fully licensed and insured. You can trust Rebirth Biofuels.
The case for recycling used cooking oil (UCO) is simple: if you don’t recycle it, you have to dispose of it some other way — and every other way is worse. It’s also the law. Louisiana requires used oil to be recycled through a licensed collector, and food and beverage businesses across the New Orleans area and the rest of the Gulf South generate thousands of gallons of it every week.
This guide covers what UCO is, where it goes wrong when it isn’t recycled, how to move it safely out of your kitchen, how to get more usable life (and money) out of the oil you’re already using, and how to know when it’s time to change it.
New Orleans doesn’t have a cooking-oil-specific city ordinance, but Louisiana’s statewide used oil law (La. R.S. 30:2417) covers it, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality enforces it.
The key points:
These rules exist to keep used oil out of Louisiana’s water and soil — not to create paperwork for restaurant owners. A licensed hauler (like Rebirth Biofuels) handles the compliance side for you.
If UCO doesn’t go to a recycler, it typically ends up in one of two bad places.
Landfills. Oil poured out with the regular trash can seep out of the waste stream and into groundwater — exactly what Louisiana’s landfill restriction is designed to prevent.
Drains and sewer grates. This is the more common — and more damaging — mistake. Vegetable oil solidifies around 55–57°F, well above freezing, so oil that goes down warm and liquid cools and hardens inside the pipe. In 2023, employees at a Popeyes in Detroit were caught pouring used fryer oil into a street-level sewer grate; the grease backed up into a neighboring resident’s basement and destroyed a water heater, power tools, and other belongings (ClickOnDetroit).
This is what a pipe clogged by fats, oils and grease looks like.
Over time, this is how fatbergs form. When fat, oil, and grease combine with wipes and other non-flushables in a sewer line, they congeal into a solid mass. Thames Water discovered a 100-tonne fatberg in Whitechapel, London in December 2025 — the “grandchild” of the infamous 130-tonne 2017 Whitechapel fatberg — and estimates it spends tens of millions of pounds every year just clearing blockages like it (Thames Water). The EPA’s own research backs this up domestically: grease from restaurants, homes, and industrial sources is the single most common cause of sewer blockages nationwide, responsible for an estimated 47% of reported cases (EPA).
For a restaurant, the fallout from a grease-related sewer backup isn’t limited to the plumbing bill — it’s health department citations, EPA fines, and reputational damage.
Municipal water systems aren’t built to process grease. Once it gets into waterways, it can foul the water, harm fish and waterfowl, and coat plant leaves in a way that blocks photosynthesis. A study of marsh plants published by the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition found that oil exposure measurably reduced photosynthesis in coastal plant life by interfering with gas exchange through the leaves (Restore the Mississippi River Delta) — a real concern in a state where wetlands like Louisiana’s are already under pressure.
Bottom line: dumping used cooking oil — down the drain, in the trash, or in bulk into compost — is never the right call for a business generating more than a cup or two a week
UCO is generated anywhere food is fried or cooked in fat: a thin film left in a home frying pan, or the many gallons a busy restaurant fryer goes through in a day. Restaurants typically store it in outdoor bins made of metal or HDPE (high-density polyethylene) until a licensed hauler picks it up. Rebirth Biofuels’ own HDPE containers are a familiar sight outside kitchens around New Orleans — you can see what our containers and pickup process look like on our oil collection page.
Getting the oil from the fryer to the bin safely is its own challenge. Common methods include:
It is a very effective low-tech way to drain oil from your fryer and transport it with minimal effort to the recycling bin. This video of a shortening shuttle shows how it works.
Another oil transport method is a caddy, which can be pushed under the fryer for draining and then wheeled to an indoor tank so the oil can be pumped in. If you’re using an indoor tank, there are other methods such as directly connecting the fryers to the indoor tank via pipes or transporting it through the pipes with a suction wand. In an environment with distributed kitchens such as a casino or hotel a grease caddy that can be placed under the fryer and then wheeled to the indoor tank is a great solution. Safety and ease of use is paramount when choosing a method to transport restaurant grease.
Eco-tubs are another option: stackable containers, typically 42 to 78 gallons, that store under a counter or sink and get wheeled out so a recycling company’s pump truck can draw directly from them.
Whatever method you use, safety comes first — hot oil transport is one of the more common sources of kitchen injuries, and the right equipment pays for itself the first time it prevents a burn.
This question matters a lot to a restaurant’s bottom line, and the answer depends on several factors working together:
Beyond filtering and polishing, a few simple kitchen habits go a long way:
In sum, the life of your cooking is highly dependent on the factors mentioned above and the care you take with your oil from frying temperature to foods to oil type to best kitchen practices.
A few signs it’s time: the oil looks dark, smells rancid, smokes at a normal cooking temperature, foams more than it did when fresh, or the food coming out of it tastes off or turns soggy instead of crisp.
Rather than guessing, most kitchens rely on one of two objective tests:
Given what a gallon of oil costs today, a $20 box of test strips or a few-hundred-dollar TPM meter typically pays for itself within weeks by preventing both premature oil changes and over-used, lower-quality oil.
We schedule used cooking oil pickups so you know when to expect us. An off schedule pickup or trap issue? You have the CEO’s cell phone number.
We provide cutting edge cooking oil management systems and they cost less than you’d think. You can prevent injuries and accidents and save on workman’s comp and insurance premiums. If you produce enough oil it makes perfect sense.
We do! You only have to make one call–to us! We are licensed grease trap cleaners in Louisiana.
Give us a call or fill out a form to learn more or get your restaurant oil removal service started as soon as you need it!
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