SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - From fried fish, to fuel for the road, Pinchers Crab Shack is recycling its leftovers.

"Our fuel cost was tremendous and here we were throwing away this oil," says owner and founder Tony Phelan.

Perfectly reusable cooking oil that helps run the diesel engines on the company trucks.

"It's like pulling up to a gas station and pumping gas, but we pump oil," says Phelan.

Phelan bought into the idea of using biofuel a couple of years ago after reading an article in Time Magazine. He did a little research on Rudolph Diesel, the man who invented the Diesel engine in 1892. Phelan found out Diesel was interested in running his engine on vegetable oil and in fact used peanut oil. "He realized oil and gas was going to be a limited commodity," says Phelan.

For Phelan using cooking oil made sense. "We actually have an electric filling station we've created underneath this restaurant," says Phelan.

The station filters the oil so it can be mixed with diesel. Phelan says they converted their trucks, which isn't cheap, about $2,500 a piece. But with traveling between eight restaurants in Florida, it didn't take long for Phelan to see the savings.

"I think with the labor of filtering and everything, II think it costs us 60 cents instead of $4.65...so we're saving $4 a gallon," says Phelan.

The trucks run quieter too. Phelan says while this is bottom line driven, the overall impact is what he feels best about.

"We're not harming the environment we're protecting the environment," says Phelan.