(Photo by Paul Atkinson - KJZZ) Tempe Town Lake.

Tempe is in the second year of a unique way to manage what goes into the city’s sewers.

It’s set up a Grease Cooperative, which recently won an award for innovation in local government.

All of Tempe's 1000 restaurants are required to manage their waste grease and oils. Instead of contracting out to a third party, the restaurants work with the city which finds a company to provde the service.

"Our restaurants save 15-30 percent off of the cost of service that they would be able to obtain at a retail level," said David McNeil, who manages the cooperative and is Tempe’s environmental services manager.