13-Year-old Recycles Cooking Grease into Heating Oil for Needy Families

After reading an article in the local newspaper, Cassandra Lin of Westerly, Rhode Island discovered that many residents could not afford to heat their homes. Inspired to do something, she formed a team of five seventh graders to recycle waste cooking oil and turn it into biofuel for distribution to needy families. Started in 2008, TGIF (Turn Grease Into Fuel) works with local biofuel companies to recycle the grease from residents and restaurants, and refine it into biodiesel. The award-winning project has been collecting more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year, bringing an estimated value of $60,000 of alternative energy that keeps 92 needy families warm in the winter.