GREENPOINT, NY – Greenpoint-based GreenDepot, a national supplier of green building materials, has become the city’s first private company to power its fleet with green fuel. The company pumped 28 trucks with recycled cooking oil from city restaurants converted into biodiesel, also known as yellow grease, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

In addition to being largely free of trans fats, the biodiesel in the company’s trucks would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 45 cars off the streets. Company spokesman Christian-Philippe Quilici said if the initial testing period proves successful, all 500 vehicles in the company’s fleet would run on biodiesel.

Tri-State Biodiesel, the state’s first biodiesel provider, is providing the fuel. The company has an office in Manhattan, ships waste cooking oil directly from city restaurants to an out-of-state producer, then distributes it locally. But when Tri-State’s Red Hook facility is completed next spring, the fuel will also be produced locally.