Homer recycling business sees success: Loopy Lupine aims to save the planet one coffee cup at a time.

• Author: Stuart, Ben
• Position: ENVIRONMENT - Dale Banks of Loopy Lupine Distribution

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For Loopy Lupine Distribution, finding a new or more environmentally responsible use for everyday products has been the driving force for business--literally.

Using trucks that run on recycled vegetable oil, Dale Banks, owner and operator of the Homer-based company, sells and delivers an extensive line of recycled, unbleached, chlorine-free and biodegradable products throughout the state. Banks drives his products to market using two diesel trucks, a green Chevy pickup and a red Suburban, all of which he converted approximately three years ago to run on vegetable oil that local restaurants throw away.

The conversions cost about $700 for each vehicle. With rising gas prices, the conversions have paid for themselves many times over, Banks said.

Banks uses about 15 gallons of vegetable oil per week to fuel his trucks. In 2005, when he converted the Suburban, the move to free fryer-grease saved him about $45 a week. With today's higher diesel prices, the savings are closer to $75 per week.

"It's been cost-effective all along," Banks said, although supply is getting scarcer as petroleum prices rise.

Several area fryer-grease converts are now competing for this clean-burning source of fuel, Banks said.

The conversion is fairly simple, he added, as it deals with just the truck's fuel lines and filters and nothing internal in the engine. The truck starts and warms up using petroleum diesel, then after about five minutes, Banks hits a switch that begins pumping vegetable oil into the engine. The truck gets about the same mileage regardless of fuel type, Banks said, although the vegetable oil is considered a "carbon-neutral" fuel.

Banks takes a hard look at the environmental impact of all aspects of his business, and has spent the last 10 years redefining its purpose.

RETAIL TO WHOLESALE

In 1997, the math major from Arizona State University, opened a retail store called Loopy Lupine Recycled Products that sold mainly household goods and items such as wallets made of old circuit board and bicycle inner tubes. But in less than a year, he realized the need for more office and food-service products in town and transitioned into a distribution company.

One benefit from the change was the amount of time spent at work, Banks said.

"I really didn't like retail hours," he said.

So, he became a wholesaler to local businesses of everything from coffee cups and lids, to napkins, cutlery and to-go containers.

"That was a better niche,"...