The biofuels industry now has an underground movement in the heart of America. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports thieves have stolen at least $2,000 worth of grease from St. Louis Wing Co. since April. A rendering company would have paid owner Bobby Tessler multiple thousands of dollars for used cooking grease.
Here is a look at why cooking grease is such a hot commodity among thieves.
* Stealing the grease is relatively easy in some instances. Grease barrels that sit outside in alleys can be opened and the contents siphoned away. That's what happened in the instance of St. Louis Wing Co. The perpetrators turned out to be teenagers. There have been three arrests made in the St. Louis area alone.
* NPR reports the current going rate for grease is around $3 per gallon of used grease. The company that buys Tessler's grease offers him $1.15 per gallon. He uses around 65 gallons of grease per week. The money adds up. Grease prices have risen from 15 cents per gallon a decade ago.
* Many companies specialize in buying grease simply for biofuels production instead of taking grease to rendering plants where it will be turned into other products like glue or animal feed.
* RecycOil in Boulder, Colo., specializes in selling grease to regional biodiesel distributors to ensure the grease supplied by local businesses replenishes supplies in the area. Employees can do things as simple as carting off tubs of oil in addition to large-scale pumping operations with tanker trucks.
* Grease Guys in Connecticut encourages recycling of grease by allowing customers to sell grease to the company in return for stocks of biofuels.
* The Environmental Protection Agency published articles on turning grease into fuel back in 2006. Philadelphia's Fry-o-Diesel said trap grease from restaurants cost about five cents per gallon to remove from restaurants. At that time, around 2 million gallons were being collected per month in the Philadelphia area.
* When biodiesel prices rose, so did the marketability of buying and selling trap grease. Impurities such as food solids had to be removed and the remaining oil, called feedstock, would be broken down into hydrocarbons to go into biodiesel fuel.
* Biodiesel Magazine reported the Missouri Department of Natural Resources gave an engineering firm $50,000 in 2010 to study the feasibility of collecting waste grease in sewer systems of St. Louis and Kansas City. In many cities, it is illegal to dump grease down the drain as it clogs waste water systems.
* KOMU in Columbia, Mo, reported in July that people in central Missouri have begun to make their own biodiesel fuel. As such, they save around 35 cents a gallon on their own fuel but they cannot sell it as per federal law.
William Browning, a lifelong Missouri resident, writes about local and state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Born in St. Louis, Browning earned his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri. He currently resides in Branson.
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