Why Is Used Cooking Grease Stolen from Restaurants?

by Jamie Ostroff (Nexstar Media Wire/WGN) Why are criminals stealing used cooking oil from restaurants across central Ohio and elsewhere? Sumit Majumdar, the president of Buffalo Biodiesel, said the crime has cost his company millions of dollars.

“It’s ballooning. It’s wiping out a third of our business,” Majumdar said. “To put that into numbers: $10 million to $15 million a year.”

Buffalo Biodiesel provides thousands of restaurants across 12 states with containers to dispose of used cooking grease. The company then collects the grease and processes it to manufacture biofuels. But as fuel has become pricier over the past year, the grease has become a more valuable commodity.

Sometimes, company drivers will arrive to collect the grease only to find the container has been emptied already.

Majumdar said he’s dealt with grease thefts in mid-Atlantic states — such as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — for several years, but he said he’s noticed more Ohio incidents in recent months.

Cooking oil theft is not a new crime. The National Renderers Association has estimated that up to $75 million worth of old cooking grease is stolen each year, The Washington Post reported in 2019.

The Post reported that rendering companies pay restaurants a fee to haul away their used cooking grease, which they then recycle and sell for components used in products such as biofuel, animal feed or fats used in perfume.

Alex Behnen, commander of the property crimes unit at the Columbus Division of Police in Ohio, said that while these thefts have been reported, he doesn’t believe they are on the rise — just that they go underreported. READ MORE; includes VIDEO