Used cooking oil / UCO has been liquid gold for carbon credit maxing as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel. Sells more per unit than cooking oil, so much so there's fraud going around mixing UCO into fresh cooking oil for resale. There's tariff shenanigans over PRC UCO exports, so now US UCO = $$$.
The broader TLRD is there's no market for gutter oil for cooking anymore when UCO sell more to industrial recyclers. Gutter oil for cooking in PRC, TW disapeared once waste cooking oil recycling industries sprung up. I think SKR avoided it all together by building biodesel management earlier.
It is absolutely material to this story though? These people will likely serve their jail or prison sentence and then be forcibly returned to China where they will immediately undergo their re-education.
At least they are using it for Biodiesel.
This happens daily in China, hundreds of thousands of people collect used oil from drains/sewers and sell it to a refinery.
However, the refinery doesn't turn it into bio-diesel; they clean it up and resell it as new cooking oil.
I don't know why restaurants need to use oil in this waste-generating way, presumably for frying. All of the same things can be cooked in an air fryer oven without oil. Granted, it takes longer, and uses plenty of electricity, but it can be done all day long.
Yes, the restaurants have a contract with a waste oil processor. The oil gets picked up and is used to make soap, cosmetics, biodiesel, or other products.
I'm not sure what the restaurant gets paid for it, probably not a lot, they may even have to pay for the service like they do for trash dumpsters. But unlike trash, the oil has a value so they probably do get paid a little bit.
They are also legally required to dispose of waste cooking oil properly. It's not toxic per se, but you can't just dump it down the drain.
The broader TLRD is there's no market for gutter oil for cooking anymore when UCO sell more to industrial recyclers. Gutter oil for cooking in PRC, TW disapeared once waste cooking oil recycling industries sprung up. I think SKR avoided it all together by building biodesel management earlier.
Seriously though, what's the usual lifecycle for those waste oil tanks? Will the owner sell the contents to a recycler when it's full?
I'm not sure what the restaurant gets paid for it, probably not a lot, they may even have to pay for the service like they do for trash dumpsters. But unlike trash, the oil has a value so they probably do get paid a little bit.
They are also legally required to dispose of waste cooking oil properly. It's not toxic per se, but you can't just dump it down the drain.
The search keyword is the day is "fatberg".
That's what the gutter is for: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv78nG9R04
This is an organized crime thing, apparently there's a chinese mob?
These people were stealing oil from restaurants and selling it to downstream users for industrial uses (making biodiesel is one)
Google suggests at about $0.5 per gallon