CORE Program sets new December record with 2,226 holiday gallons
Hillsborough residents recycled nearly 15,000 gallons of cooking oil again in 2025, almost reaching a record for the year. The County's Cooking Oil Recycling Effort (CORE) had a successful 15th year, adding three new cabinet drop-off locations and preventing untold damage to residential pipes.
Drop-off locations around Ruskin, Sheldon Road, and U.S. 41 near Gibsonton had the biggest increases in collections in 2025.
Hillsborough County residents set a single-month record by collecting 2,688 gallons in December, the CORE program's highest one-month total ever. December 2025 beat the previous one-month record by 462 gallons.
Neighborhoods setting new gold standard
Several Hillsborough neighborhoods also set personal bests, and four CORE sites recycled more than 1,000 gallons each. They are:
- Summerfield Pump Station 1,366 gallons
- Riverview Library 1,154 gallons
- Bloomingdale Library 1,071 gallons
- South Regional Service Center 1,030 gallons
Libraries top CORE recycling locations
Libraries continued to be popular locations for residents to drop off their used cooking oil for recycling. Of the nine County libraries with collection cabinets, seven collected more than 500 gallons each and three had double-digit increases in percentage collected over 2024.
- Riverview Library 1,154 gallons in 2025
- Bloomingdale Library 1,071.25
- SouthShore Library 784.51
- Jimmie B. Keel Library 766
- Seffner/Mango Library 720.5
- Brandon Library 473
- 78th Street Library 471.5
- Maureen B. Gauzza Library 344
- Austin Davis Library 323.75
CORE convenience
Hillsborough's Cooking Oil Recycling Effort, or "CORE," makes it easy for residents to recycle by providing 29 convenient drop-off locations around the County. Residents can put their cool recycled cooking oil in any container with a sealable lid and drop it off in a cabinet near their home. This year, some Hillsborough neighborhoods really understood the assignment.
Hillsborough's top neighborhoods for CORE recycling in 2024 and 2025 were:
- Summerfield
- Bloomingdale
- FishHawk
- Riverview
- Lake Magdelene
- SouthShore
CORE popularity on the rise
Recycling cooking oil is increasingly popular in several pockets around the County, including Westchase and Apollo Beach. These neighborhoods saw big jumps in their collection numbers in 2025:
- Gibsonton 81%
- Ruskin 77%
- Sheldon Road 24%
- Apollo Beach 20%
- Brandon Library 15%
- Westchase 13%
- Riverview 13%
Why recycle cooking oil
Used cooking oils are a serious problem for home plumbing and Hillsborough County's wastewater collection system. Cooking oil that is poured down the drain gels and solidifies inside pipes, sewage lines and sewage lift stations, constricting water flow. That can back up home plumbing, and it also can cause equipment to malfunction, leading to sewage spills, overflows onto streets, and foul odors in homes and neighborhoods.
Recycled cooking oil is used for biodiesel, animal feed, and other industrial uses.
Since the inception of the CORE program, there has been a steady increase in collections, averaging a 12-13% growth year over year. This success is because of residents who actively participate in the program, helping to prevent thousands of gallons of used cooking oil from entering the County's waste collection system.
If your Hillsborough neighborhood would like to learn more, Environmental Services offers complementary educational presentations to community groups on the CORE Program. Standard presentations can be adjusted depending on your group size, and most presentations are 15-20 minutes long.