SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- The San Francisco Port Commission gave two thumbs up to a company that processes food waste, animal parts and used restaurant grease to move ahead with plans to build a new biodiesel plant along the city's southeastern waterfront.
Randall Stuewe, Chairman and CEO of Texas-based Darling International, says the company has been running food-stock plants along the waterfront next to Pier 92 for the past four decades.
"We drive around the city and we collect waste products from the food industry. Whether it's grocery stores, whether it's restaurants, we bring 'em back and we transform 'em. We'll recycle them into usable ingredients... for both the feed and the fuel industry."
KCBS' Mark Seelig reports
Now the city hopes to convert much of the existing plant into a state of the art bio-diesel facility. Mayor Gavin Newsom says that once the $7 to $10 million project is completed, the plant will be able to produce 7.5 to 10 million gallons of this environmentally friendly fuel, which will help to power the city's entire, 15,000 diesel fleet.
"The idea that a city can generate the fuel within a city border to power it's buses, and fire engines and ambulances, is a remarkable thing. Talk about energy independence."
Newsom says that the plant will serve as a model for other major cities which, like San Francisco, wish to reduce their carbon footprints.
Under the plan, Darling will also team up with the port to build a marine fueling station for boats that use bio-diesel.
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