The Norwell Recycling Committee just announced cooking oil-recycling services at the town’s recycling center. So if your plans this Thanksgiving include deep frying a turkey, save that oil and bring it down to the Norwell Recycling Center.

It’s pretty simple. Just save your non-solid, liquid cooking oils, and bring them in a container to the recycling center’s cooking oil receptacle where it will be collected and recycled by AMENICO, American Energy Independence Company, located in Pittsfield, NH. The company is committed to creating an environmentally friendly carbon neutral society, and to this end, the waste cooking oil is converted into a biomass based renewable diesel fuel.

AMENICO’s Sarandis Karathanasis will present “Turning French Fry Oil Into Fuel” and explain how the process works and discuss the benefits of keeping fuel local. Waterville Valley is one ski resort that has teamed up with Amenico to turn its waste grease into fuel. Sarandis is also a partner in the Red Blazer Restaurant in Concord, where all hot water for the restaurant is fueled by waste grease generated at the restaurant.

The conference runs from 8:30a.m. to 3 p.m., and costs $15 per person. Seating is limited, so please register by Wednesday, August 17. For more information and the full agenda, go to under “A to Z LIST,” and click on “Green Slopes,” or contact Melissa Zych at (603) 271-0878 or melissa.zych@des.nh.gov.

In 1981, four New Hampshire municipalities founded the Northeast Resource Recovery Association, then called the New Hampshire Resource Recovery Association, to provide a clearinghouse for current, up-to-date information and a source of technical and marketing assistance in the general areas of waste reduction and recycling.

Since then, membership in the NRRA has grown to include over 400 municipalities, individuals, and businesses in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Southern Maine. The NRRA is a member driven organization whose programs are designed and overseen by the members they serve.

The NRRA provides cooperative purchasing programs, educational and networking opportunities, technical assistance, and cooperative marketing programs that have received national recognition for establishing innovative grassroots recyclables marketing cooperatives with competitive pricing which enables small, rural and large urban communities to manage their own recycling programs. NRRA is a non-profit 501(c) organization.

Students aren’t worried about running low on vegetable oil, saying they had their 290-gallon tank topped off in New Hampshire by AMENICO, one of the tour’s sponsors.

Read more: “The Big Green Bus Rolls in Fairfield”

Before their trip to Massachusett’s North Shore, the students had refueled for the first time, grateful for a donation from the Pittsfield, N.H.-based American Energy Independence Co. (AMENICO), whose products include a biomass-based renewable diesel fuel.

Read more: ‘Big Green Bus’ detours through Marblehead – Marblehead, MA – Marblehead Reporter

AMENICO managing directors include Tony Giunta, front, and back row, from left, Sarandis Karathanasis, David Ossoff and Greg Bryant.

Pittsfield, NH – American Energy Independence Co. has not just survived, it has flourished since it began in 2008 – despite a national recession and doing business in one of the most financially-challenged towns in New Hampshire.

“We could not have started at a worse time,” said Tony Giunta, an AMENICO co-founder and former mayor of Franklin.

But, Giunta said, “We picked up business as the economy fell of (and) we continued to grow through that period and we’re continuing to see exponential growth right now.”

AMENICO, which purchases used vegetable oil from restaurants and food service facilities and converts it into fuel, has grown from three employees in 2008 to 16 now.

In May the company notched its 650th client.

Hotel Signs On

The Radisson Manchester hotel recently signed on with AMENICO. Hotel manager Kim Roy said reducing her hotel’s environmental impact was something she “wanted to do for a long time.”

“I was excited. We’re always looking at ways to be a more responsible business,” Roy said.

The hotel disposes of about 100 gallons of vegetable oil a month from its two restaurants and function facility. “It couldn’t be more convenient,” Roy said. “They’re in the area. They provide you with a container and pick it up.”

AMENICO has thrived partly because it takes vegetable oil away from businesses at no charge. Under a traditional business model, businesses pay to get rid of the vegetable oil to manufacturers who ship it overseas to be used in a variety of products, such as farm animal feed and cosmetics. In AMENICO’s case, the company brings the oil back to its facility at 5 Main Street in Pittsfield, and converts it to renewable diesel, or advanced biofuel.

“We’ve turned the market upside down,” Giunta said. “We’ve turned (used vegetable oil) into a commodity.”

Oil Refinery

At AMENICO headquarters in the former Suncook Tannery building, the company refines waste vegetable oil through a proprietary advanced filtration process, and then blends the oil with traditional products to create a cleaner, more sustainable form of combustible energy.

AMENICO's products and services are led by the sale of biomass-based renewable diesel fuel, shown in the large vial, far left. The fuel is obtained by processing used vegetable oil , lower right, through various stages, into the finished product.

AMENICO owns the New England distributorship for multi-fuel burners produced by KingBuilt Inc. of Wisconsin, and the New England distributorship for Golden Fuel Systems, a company that converts cars to run on vegetable oil. It also provides consulting services for companies that want to reduce their energy costs.

The renewable diesel produced by AMENICO makes up about 5 percent of the home heating oil or regular diesel fuel that it’s blended into, directly cutting the use of traditional oil or diesel, and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by as much as 80 percent in some cases, according to Giunta and AMENICO’s website.

Giunta said that in industrialized settings, the renewable diesel can make up 50 percent or more of what a company burns for energy. Businesses used as sources are sometimes more than willing to donate. “When you have a business owner that now has a choice of “I can pay to get rid of this product or I can pay nothing’ – it’s a no-brainer,” Giunta said. “And it’s right here in New Hampshire. We’re putting dollars back into the local economy.”

Home Base

AMENICO is happy to be based in Pittsfield, where, last October, the company announced that it had sold its one-millionth gallon of renewable diesel. “We picked Pittsfield because we liked the town so much,” said Sarandis Karathanasis, co0founder of AMENICO.

Pittsfield was the focus of the non-profit group Plan New Hampshire earlier this year who teamed with local officials to come up with ways to help the town’s economic viability. The group was specifically analyzing a 20-acre site near the center of town.

A final report has been completed, and was expected to be released early this month, according to town and Plan NH officials.

But Karathanasis said AMENICO has already benefitted from Pittsfiled’s attention.

“We’ve been welcomed with open arms. They’re interested in businesses, which is not the case in other communities,” he said.

Reprinted from the Manchester Union Leader
Monday, June 6, 2011
By Dan O’Brien

AMENICO’s proprietary manufacturing process produces a renewable diesel that is non-toxic, biodegradable, and carbon neutral. Every gallon used to replace fossil fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 80% and reduces the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. It is also cost competitive with fossil fuel thus helping to keep local fuel prices low.