Biodiesel Magazine's Podcast: Cracking Down on Used Cooking Oil Theft

January 23, 2023

Print This Article Share it With Friends

(Biodiesel Magazine) This week's Biodiesel Magazine podcast features Jeff Yasinski, Co-Founder and CEO of D&W Alternative Energy interviewed by Anna Simet, editor of Biodiesel Magazine. LISTEN

Growing use of biodiesel comes with rising threat of crime in tri-state area (PIX 11)
Thieves target biodiesel, causing significant loss for Kern UCO and partners (Bakersfield Now)

Excerpt from Bakersfield Now: Brian Wachter has been the owner of Kern UCO since 2017, and in the last four years, the rise of oil theft has affected his business, including hundreds of small business restaurants in Bakersfield that they work with.

“Every restaurant has a receptacle in the back where they dump their fryer oil from their French fries and whatnot. We provide a service where we collect those, we provide the bins and we collect that oil," said Wachter.

So why steal used oil?

Wachter said the waste can be recycled and turned into biodiesel fuel which thieves can sell to collection centers across the state, and it can be worth up to thousands of dollars.

“It’s a commodity so the price fluctuates a little more rapidly than regular fuel, and so when the price goes up, there’s people that go out at night in vacuum trucks and tankers and break into tanks and steal the oil out of them,” added Wachter. “They go out and steal a few hundred gallons in the evening, that's a pretty easy way to make a living.”

...

Kern UCO is also paying about $8,000 annually to be licensed with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

They are also willing to give a $1,000 reward for information leading up to the thieves' identity or license plate. READ MORE