Biodiesel Companies Want Stricter Regulation on Waste Oil
by Elaine Yau (South China Morning Post) The recent gutter oil scandal leads to calls to set up a licensing system
Last month’s scandal over sales of tainted lard from Taiwan has been a source of bitter satisfaction for Hong Kong’s handful of biodiesel producers. It’s helped shine a spotlight on a warped market that encourages restaurants and catering operations to sell used cooking oil at higher prices to unscrupulous dealers, only to have it return to local kitchens in the form of lard or other oil and fat mixed with “gutter oil”.
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Hong Kong has a plethora of restaurants generating used oil and grease. In the past, this was often simply poured into drains, and the Drainage Services Department used to spend tens of millions of dollars every year to clear blocked drains.
At the time, it was relatively cheap to collect such used oil from restaurants, Choi says.
But without regulation, the collection of waste oil eventually came to be dominated by dubious operators.
Of Hong Kong’s estimated 40 oil recyclers, only three produce biodiesel – ASB Biodiesel in Tseung Kwai O, the largest operator by far, and Dynamic Progress and Champway Technology in Tuen Mun.
Others recyclers simply collect used oil for processing and export.
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It would be far more efficient to control this by requiring all commercial kitchens to dispose of their used oil only to a dozen authorised collectors which meet set standards.
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In his native Spain, he adds, there are strict rules governing the movement of used cooking oil, with a clear system of traceability. Restaurants, collectors, biodiesel plants must sign a document called a waste transfer note that is submitted to the authorities to allow them to keep track of where containers of used oil are moved, and to enable officials to conduct checks.
Hong Kong has a similar system for chemical waste, and there should be one for waste oil, too, Vazquez Lucerga argues.
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“… You can’t let the market decide where the [used] oil ends up as it’s a material with potential food, hygiene and environmental impact. If there’s no proper monitoring, the same thing will happen again.”
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Now even Shanghai has introduced regulations on the handling of used cooking oil, he adds. Since last year, used cooking oil can only be collected by licensed collectors for transfer to the city’s two biodiesel companies. Failing to comply would result in fines and non-renewal of restaurant licences.
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Middle East-backed ASB is in far better shape as just 30 per cent of the used oil treated at its plant comes from Hong Kong; the rest is imported from around Southeast Asia.
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Only 5 per cent of its biodiesel is sold locally, Vazquez Lucerga says, with the bulk exported to Europe and the mainland.
“China wants biodiesel, but Hong Kong does not.” READ MORE
