Sustainable UCR is driving vegetarian! Sustainable UCR is an organization of students, faculty and staff and University of California, Riverside working towards environmental sustainability on the Riverside campus. On April 27 from 1-3 at the UC Riverside Bell Tower Sustainable UCR will demonstrate three Grease Cars! What are grease cars, you might ask? Grease Cars (also known as Veggie Cars) are regular passenger vehicles that have been converted to run on used vegetable oil.


Sustainable UCR members, Ian Balcom and Grady Gauthier don't eat french fries very often, but are very glad that other people do. The waste oil from every french fry, leg of fried chicken, onion ring and tortilla chip car go directly into their gas tanks. More vegetable oil equates more fuel- and (this is the best part)- restaurants have to pay to dispose of their oil waste, so Gauthier and Balcom fill up their tanks for free!
Balcom has converted his 2000 blue Volkswagen Jetta to run on vegetable oil and Gauthier has converted his silver 1985 Mercedes. They use diesel start the diesel engine and once the car warms up they flip a switch installed in the car's dashboard. Passengers can't tell the difference- but they are running on vegetables.


Vegetable oil powered vehicles offer a solution to the growing problem of atmospheric pollution and dependence on foreign oil. They use a renewable plant-produced "biofuel" as fuel instead of gas or diesel. In addition to the obvious benefits of decreasing our dependence of foreign oil, the use of biofuels actually help restore the environment from years of harmful vehicle emissions. Because they are produced by plants, (not factories), the process of making biofuels cleans the air through the process of photosynthesis.
Today's Veggie cars are primarily run on recycled oil from restaurants and cafeterias. In the future, however, there will be a market for biofuels as the demand grows for a cheap, sustainable, environmentally sound fuel source. Until then, us veggie car drivers are happy to drive around on free fuel collected from the "grease traps" of your local restaurants.
Come check out the grease cars on April 27th and get information on the conversion process and other upcoming Sustainable UCR events.