Don’t Strain Your Drain is a public service campaign in Mount Vernon to collect residents’ used cooking oil at Mount Vernon Fire Stations for recycling. Mount Vernon Youth Community Outreach Program (YCOP) students who participated in the Environmental Leaders of Color (ELOC) Student Summer Energy and Environmental Program for Teens are initiating this oil collection campaign as their entry in the Bedford 2030 Greenlight Prize.
From January 27, 2024, to March 23, 2023, residents may collect their cooking oil, and we hope to get approval for deposits at Mount Vernon fire stations. When poured down the drain, cooking oil solidifies and clog drains. Water pools in basements and yards during rainstorms when sewer drains are clogged. Water inside homes compromises the structure’s integrity and can lead to the growth of toxic mold and mildew, which is harmful to humans and pets. The cost to homeowners and municipalities for oil removal and its consequential damage can be millions.
For three years, ELOC has offered its Student Summer Energy & Environmental Program for Teens to high school students from socially and environmentally vulnerable communities about climate change, its impact, mitigation, solutions, and workforce requirements. This past summer, students from community-based organizations in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Yonkers, Portchester, Ossining, and Peekskill learned about water and all its possibilities. At the end of the summer, a team of students from Mount Vernon YCOP won first prize for their final project, The Dangers of Pouring Cooking Oil Down the Drain.
The students discovered that for the more than 394,000 households in Westchester County, there is only one site, Westchester County Recycling Household Material Recovery Facility, where residents may discard harmful household waste; furthermore, the site is inaccessible to residents without cars and appointments must be made before each visit. The Mount Vernon YCOP team presented their findings to the Westchester County Board of Legislature – Housing Committee and were subsequently invited to participate in the Bedford 2030 Greenlight Award Prize.
According to Dr. Diana Williams, Acting Executive Director of ELOC and the student’s Faculty Advisor, “These brilliant students have identified a costly problem and devised a simple solution. The Don’t Strain Your Drain campaign will educate Mount Vernon residents about proper cooking oil disposal and secure accessible disposal sites at fire stations. In 2024, ELOC students will expand this program throughout Westchester County. ELOC is committed to providing our young people with the skills and tools to work together to solve environmental issues in their communities.”
