Green Depot is a non-profit organization based in Santa Monica, which seeks to:
"facilitate more sensible and responsible use of our natural resources through increased awareness, advocacy and implementation of biomass fuels such as biodiesel, and other sustainable forms of energy, products and services."
Biodiesel is a fuel similar to petroleum based diesel, but is made from vegetable oil. The beauty of the manufacturing process is that the vegetable oil "feedstock" does not have to be "virgin" (i.e. unused). Oil that has been used for cooking (in a restaurant for instance) can be collected, filtered, and converted into a fuel.
While biodiesel has taken off in the midwest, thanks to generous tax-incentives that reflect the agriculturally-based economy of states like Iowa, biodiesel is not yet established in Southern California. This is because of certain limitations associated with the fuel. Biodiesel is a legitimate carbon-neutral fuel, and burning it leads to less emissions of particulates than petroleum-based diesel, but it does emit higher levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx). NOx happens to be one of the major factors in creating smog. Here in SoCal, where smog is a very large problem, that has prevented the local air quality board from adding the fuel to its list of approved alternative fuels.
That said, Green Depot has realized that the adoption of new fuels as we shift away from petroleum will take some pioneering, and are hoping that their efforts to promote biodiesel will at least create some critical mass. If Green Depot is able to raise enough interest in biodiesel, and advances are made in limiting the NOx emissions of the fuel, perhaps we will see the day when the waste oil of LA's plentiful restaurants is converted to automobile fuel!
