Posted on: Friday, November 8, 2002
HAWAIIAN STYLE
Fat fuels laundry's 100th anniversary celebration
When Mike Drace, owner and president of Young Laundry & Dry Cleaning, tells you that their new Kalihi Kai plant runs on rendered chicken fat, you might respond "chicken feathers!"
But it's true. And to Drace, the cost-saving, environmentally friendly new boiler fuel is just plain "chicken skin."
And, it'll be his pride and joy to show off as the firm begins its year-long, 100th anniversary celebration next Friday, which is, "just coincidentally," Drace's birthday.
"It's all about you, isn't it?" jokes a friendly supporter.
Drace is even pleading for gifts — not for himself, but for Young Laundry. He is asking people to bring in old Young Laundry memorabilia in exchange for discount coupons. He's looking for things from the laundry's opening in November 1902, in the old Alexander Young Hotel.
"That's where the (Scottish) name came from — we were already the 'in-house' laundry when the hotel opened in 1903," he said.
Perhaps people will offer up old wooden hangers, the ones with the "6036" telephone listing, and the 180 S. King St., Territory of Hawai'i, address. He has a few.
Or maybe the popular folding matchbook-like sewing kits, circa 1925, or the big novelty back then: "zipper wax" lubricant, with the Young Laundry label.
"What we're really hoping for" during the year-long Diamond Celebration, Drace said, are old pictures of past employees. Or, he said, relatives coming forward to identify photographs in old Young Laundry advertisements.
One of the prizes will be a 1-carat diamond.
He'll even accept damaged clothing that was, ahem, "done" by Young. "It's impossible to have a laundry that doesn't make 'mistakes,'" he said.
And for part of the celebration, the laundry is "going home," staging an "art show" in the Bishop Square building on the site of the old Alexander Young Hotel.
The "chicken fat" trick is now part of Young's history.
After buying the company, Drace was approached in early 2001 with the advantages of a new industrial concept of replacing diesel boiler fuel with a smelly goo known as "yellow grease," a lard-like mass made from recycled restaurant cooking oil and rendered animal fat — the stuff butcher shops throw away.
"Great idea," he thought. Rendered orderless at Campbell Industrial Park, the filtered by-product of old restaurant french fry and chicken oil takes on a second life as an odorless, cheap fuel. And saves the firm $3,000 a month, Drace said.
He keeps a carafe of the stuff in his office for illustration. "Crisco," he says, drawing the perfect consistency comparison. Heated, it's "perfect Wesson-ality," he said, displaying a warmed beaker of the stuff.
"It's pretty yucky," he said. "But it works. Actually, it has the (same) Btu as diesel, and, in effect, is similar to burning heavy grade fuel oil."
A simple barbecue/camping propane cylinder jump starts the boiler. Afterward, Drace said, the process is self-perpetuating. No retrofitting of the old diesel boiler was needed to begin using animal fat instead of diesel.
Steam produced from the boiler powers the cleaning and laundry plant, which turns out 7,000 pieces of clothing a day, 100 hotel uniform dresses an hour.
So successful are the company's oil and clothes hanger recycling efforts — for the company, restaurants and environment — that they will be featured in this year's city annual "Tour de Trash" on Wednesday.
"This is a great thing," Drace said. "It works for us, it works for the environment. It offers jobs at the processing plant — and people no longer have to ship the oil off island as a waste product or for animal feed.
"In fact," he said, "100 years ago we probably used oil (as fuel). We've come full circle."
"Chicken feathers!" you say.
