Glendale Business Is Reducing Restaurant Waste With Oil Recycling And Filtration System

Matt McMahon, President, SK Oils, Inc. 

When Matt McMahon sold the Outback Steakhouses he owned, he thought he was exiting the restaurant business for good. But SK Oils, Inc., a Glendale-based oil packaging and distribution company, pulled him back in. 

And now he’s helping the company show restaurants how to use and reuse their fryer oil in a more sustainable and cost-effective way. 

“We’ve saved 760,000 pounds of waste from going into the landfills,” McMahon, president at SK Oils, said. “And I still have many restaurants to go. Thousands more to go.”

For McMahon, it began with the Bloomin’ Onion, a deep-fried staple on the Outback Steakhouse menu. He wanted to cook it perfectly every time, and an oil filtration system S&K Oils was using at the time helped him achieve it. 

The patented Zeco filtration machine not only allows for restaurants to recycle and reuse the oil they need for their fryers, but it cuts costs and reduces the amount of waste that enters the landfill. 

Using the SK system to filter cooking oil

“After about 60 days of using the equipment, I started realizing our usage had gone down. It had been cut in half. So, we reduced our costs as well,” he said, referring to the volume of oil his restaurants needed. “That filtration machine is the hallmark of what we do here at S&K to make sure our oils are perfect.”

In addition to offering the filtration system for restaurants to use on site, SK Oils also takes the oil that restaurants can no longer use and filters it at their facility. The recycled and filtered oil is then used for feed by the Arizona Cattle Grower’s Association.

“Once a week, they come pick it up with their tanker and they mix it into their feed,” McMahon said. 

Stainless steel cooking oil tanks at SK Oils packing facility

When it comes to reducing waste, the Zeco system not only keeps used oil out of landfills, but it allows smaller restaurants to take advantage of a bulk ordering approach to oil consumption instead of the traditional, 35-pound boxes of oil they’ve had to use for decades. The restaurant industry has long embraced an oil consumption system that requires restaurants to order and store multiple boxes of oil — made of cardboard and plastic — every week. 

The Zeco system is changing that configuration, even for restaurants that normally order fewer than 10 boxes a week.

“We’re slowly converting people over from the 18th century technology to the 21st century, and we’re able to stop wasting so much plastic and cardboard,” McMahon said. “We can eliminate those boxes and plastic from having to be used with the equipment we came up with. It’s a stainless steel container that holds oil. It’s a machine that can pump oil into the fryers for the restaurant.”

Production area at SK Oils packing facility

Fashioned to wheels and topped with a stainless steel prep area, the one-of-a-kind system is compact at 3-feet-by-2-feet, and its environmentally friendly process improves the color, quality and flavor of fried food. Oregano’s uses the company’s bulk oil system and Filiberto’s participates in SK’s oil recycling efforts.

McMahon said he loves that local restaurants have realized the benefits of the system for customers, their bottom line and for sustainability, and he can’t wait for more to get on board. There’s no excuse, he said, for any restaurant to be using boxed oil anymore. 

“This machine helps us go to the mom and pop places using four or five boxes per week and it gives them an opportunity to go green. Before, their excuse was that it wasn’t in their best interest to use the bulk system,” McMahon said. “We’re hoping to revolutionize the business.”

To learn more about the bulk oil, oil recycling and oil filtration offerings SK Oils makes available to restaurants, visit the S&K website here. To learn about Local First Arizona’s Green Business Support, click here.