Between sips of craft beer at Cerveceria La Tropical in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, diners and drinkers scarf down a seemingly endless array of fried foods: tostones, croquetas, empanadas, french fries, yuca fries, chicharrones, bacalao fritters and so on.
They might not realize their salty snacks are, in their own small way, contributing to a growing industry that could help slow climate change and limit the effects of sea level rise, extreme heat and rapidly intensifying hurricanes here in South Florida.
That’s because La Tropical is one of hundreds of restaurants, hospitals, stadiums, university campus kitchens and corporate cafeterias in Miami and across the region that recycle its used cooking oil so that it can be turned into a low-carbon fuel called biodiesel. In other words, the grease that fries your croqueta to crispy perfection today may power an 18-wheeler truck tomorrow.
