Ach! My retirement grease!

deskslave · May 29, 2008

The New York Times gives us another example of life imitating The Simpsons.

Couldn't find it on their Web site yet.

The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank. After rummaging around assorted restaurant rubbish, he dunked a tube into a smelly storage bin and, the police said, vacuumed out about 300 gallons of grease.

The man was caught before he could slip away. In his truck, the police found 2,500 gallons of used fryer grease, indicating that the Burger King had not been his first fast-food craving of the day.

Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

"Fryer grease has become gold," Damianidis said. "And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away."

Much to the surprise of Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks.
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The Big Ragu · May 29, 2008

People convert their diesel cars and put in filtration systems so their engines can run on a mixture of fryer grease and diesel. There are tutorials all over the Internet. A few years ago, it was a relatively small number of people and restaurants were all too happy to give away their used cooking oil, because they had to pay someone to cart it away. But the number of people running on "greisel" has increased and the used cooking oil has turned into a semi-valuable commodity.

fishwrapper · May 29, 2008

This has been addressed on other threads...
This is hardly new. I even had one.

Buck · May 30, 2008

The Big Ragu said:

People convert their diesel cars and put in filtration systems so their engines can run on a mixture of fryer grease and diesel. There are tutorials all over the Internet. A few years ago, it was a relatively small number of people and restaurants were all too happy to give away their used cooking oil, because they had to pay someone to cart it away. But the number of people running on "greisel" has increased and the used cooking oil has turned into a semi-valuable commodity.
Click to expand...

The key part of that statement is 'semi-valuable.'
It traded today for $33 cwt.
If you're willing to risk being charged with a felony, there are more sensible risk-reward gambles.
The guy in the story is obviously no Lex Luthor.

Batman · May 30, 2008

Everyone should think about this when the oil vs. alternative fuels debate pops up. Do we really want criminals stealing our precious fryer grease in the middle of the night? Tap ANWR now!

EStreetJoe · May 30, 2008

How soon before restaurants investigate how to hook a pump up to their grease barrels/fryer bins and charge people to take it away in their gas tanks?

John · May 30, 2008

deskslave said:

The New York Times gives us another example of life imitating The Simpsons.

Couldn't find it on their Web site yet.

The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank. After rummaging around assorted restaurant rubbish, he dunked a tube into a smelly storage bin and, the police said, vacuumed out about 300 gallons of grease.

The man was caught before he could slip away. In his truck, the police found 2,500 gallons of used fryer grease, indicating that the Burger King had not been his first fast-food craving of the day.

Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

"Fryer grease has become gold," Damianidis said. "And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away."

Much to the surprise of Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks.
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I'm so happy with the thread title. Well done.

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Ach! My retirement grease!

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