By DAVID SHAFTEL (NYT); The City Weekly Desk
January 14, 2007, Sunday

ON an early January morning at the loading dock behind the Whole Foods Market in Union Square, a pristine vacuum truck with a shiny 2,000-gallon tank was double-parked near some weathered delivery trucks. But despite the truck's sparkle, it was engaged in some dirty work.

The vehicle is the first in a planned fleet of pump trucks owned by Tri-State Biodiesel, a nascent city-based company that describes itself as the first to conduct large-scale collections of restaurant grease and other waste oils for making cleaner-burning biodiesel fuel.

The truck driver inserted a long green hose into the two waiting 55-gallon drums and proceeded to make short work of their contents — a viscous fluid, the color of a nut brown ale with the tang of Asian spices — sucking it all up in under a minute.

Tri-State Biodiesel is the brainchild of Brent Baker, an environmental activist and entrepreneur. With biodiesel catching on in other parts of the country — there are soybean fields in Iowa dedicated to its production, and even biodiesel truck stops in Texas — Mr. Baker began to wonder how he could bring the trend home to New York.

Mr. Baker, 36, who sports a soul patch and a T-shirt emblazoned with a box of French fries and the word "fuel," runs Tri-State Biodiesel out of an East Village walk-up apartment, his office wall decorated with the kind of hippie-style tapestry favored in some dorm rooms. Before setting up Tri-State Biodiesel, Mr. Baker toured the country in a grease-powered school bus, educating people on alternative energy sources.

With more than 20,000 restaurants in the city, Mr. Baker's business model is simple: collect used fryer grease for free, and take it to a rendering plant where it is converted to biodiesel, to be sold back to consumers. The idea, said Mr. Baker, is to make things as easy as possible for the restaurant owners.

"A lot of them genuinely want to do the right thing for the environment," he said. "So we give them the option of making that choice in a way that doesn't hurt them economically."

Businesses are enthusiastic about the idea; Mr. Baker said he is collecting from about 100 restaurants and other establishments so far, all of them in the city. Used fryer grease is considered a nuisance product and restaurants typically must pay a carting service to remove it. They are often tempted to dispose of it in cheaper ways that may have detrimental effects on the environment. Some dump the grease down the drain, where it can clog pipes or burst them when it freezes. Some leave canisters of used oil in sidewalk trash cans, for city dump trucks to pick up, and some pay homeless people or odd-job men to dispose of it, no questions asked.

Biodiesel is made from refining vegetable oils or animal fats, and is usually mixed with petroleum diesel to form a cleaner-burning fuel that can be used in most diesel engines. With New York's many diesel-powered delivery and construction vehicles, there is a big market for the fuel, as well as the chance to improve the city's environment and its inhabitants' health, Mr. Baker says.

With support from the city and private investors, two-year-old Tri-State made its first grease pickup just before Christmas. Aaron Hoffman, owner of Wogies, a West Village sanctuary for expatriate Philadelphia sports fans, is one of the places that have signed on with Tri-State, and none too soon: He expects to deep-fry nearly 5,000 chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday.

"The oil has to go somewhere," Mr. Hoffman said, pointing to 35-pound canisters of used soybean oil. "And if everyone did this, it would be great for the environment."

Another Tri-State client, Whole Foods, has proved a coup for Mr. Baker, who collects the waste oils from the food preparation operations for the chain's three New York outlets.

Jennifer McDonnell, Whole Foods's environmental specialist for the region, who signed the deal with Tri-State, said she had an environmentalist colleague in Northern California — the epicenter of environmental activism — who was constantly teasing her for lagging behind in spreading the green message.

"I'm always like, 'Buddy, this is New York,' " Ms. McDonnell said. "The culture out here is so different. This was a huge win for me."

(original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/nyregion/thecity/14oil.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)