Plano, Texas - It can't be good for your arteries but it is good for the environment. People in the southern United States like their Thanksgiving Day turkey deep fried, and the municipality of Plano, north of Dallas collects the used fat from residents for use in the bio-fuel industry.
Plano municipal worker Lois Woolf said, as she hoisted a plastic container of oil left outside someone's home for collection: "This is our busiest time, the week after Thanksgiving. We collect about 2000 litres of turkey fat during that time."
The city collected 4500 litres of cooking oil in 2005, the majority of it turkey fryer fat - and mostly during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
The used oil is donated to Biodiesel Industries, the first renewable energy-powered plant producing bio-diesel fuel in Texas.
Bio-fuels are gaining favor - even in Texas, the heart of the US oil industry - as an alternative "clean" fuel amid growing concerns about carbon emissions linked to climate change, high oil prices and instability in oil-producing regions such as the Middle East.
Plano sustainability communications coordinator for Plano Melinda Sweney said: "The City of Plano has a rolling stock of 700-800 vehicles; 59 of them use hybrid or alternative fuels."
Plano collects the oil from residents who phone in and ask for pick-ups - and there are plenty of calls in a region where people like their food fried and crispy.
Plano resident Rita Keys said: "The first time I heard about fried turkey was years ago in Louisiana and I thought 'who eats fried turkey?'
"But it's good," she added as Plano municipal worker Marty Huffman poured fat from a deep fryer into plastic containers via a funnel. The scent in the air was distinctly turkey.
The favoured method is to use a 40-litre deep fryer (super-sized" like everything else in Texas) outside the house, filled with peanut oil and heated with propane.
This is a sharp contrast from homes in the northern US where the big bird is usually stuffed and baked in the oven and the fat is consumed as gravy, not fuel. -Reuters