Thieves are stealing fryer oil from restaurants, as the price per pound climbs to 25 cents, up from 7.6 cents per pound in 2000.
“[T]hanks to a 2007 energy law, oil companies must use 2 billion gallons of biodiesel this year, 100 million gallons more than last year, and the most ever in U.S. history. Most of that biodiesel is made from soybean oil, but old fryer grease is the second largest (and fastest growing) source,” says Eater. The added demand is upping fryer oil prices and giving rise to at least 44 fryer-oil thefts last month alone, says Bloomberg.
“It’s like crack money,” Sumit Majumdar, president of Buffalo Biodiesel Inc., a Tonawanda, New York-based collector, told Bloomberg. “There’s an actual market for stolen oil. It’s almost like a pawn shop or scrap-metal business.”