First Plant to Turn Grease Into Fuel Opens The Northeast's first plant to convert restaurant grease into biofuel has officially opened.

Suffolk County's sewage-treatment plant stopped accepting restaurant grease in 2002 after its system clogged up, and Nassau's plant accepts grease only from restaurants inside the county.

But here at Sidelands Sugarbush in southeastern Vermont, the sweet aroma of maple syrup was mixed with a very different smell: the pungent odor of hot, used restaurant grease.

Waste sleuth Todd Sutton discovers how "good" recycled restaurant grease is converted into bio-diesel fuel at Blue Sky Bio-Fuel in California.

Biodiesel (in its pure form) is a non-toxic, biodegradable form of diesel fuel made from vegetable oil, usually soybean oil or recycled restaurant grease.

It will also improve a program to control the dumping of pollutants like restaurant grease, much of which ends up in storm drains and, eventually, the ocean.

"We usually get condoms of all sizes and an awful lot of restaurant grease," Mr. Muller said.

She bought a Volkswagen Jetta with a diesel engine and started filling it with fuel made from restaurant grease.

The bio- component sometimes comes from discarded restaurant grease; vehicles using it smell faintly of French fries.

Tri-State Biodiesel, the other New York operator scheduled to begin production next year, plans to use recycled restaurant grease as its feed source, said Brent Baker, the company's chief executive.