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Buffalo Biodiesel has issued a security alert to roughly 30,000 restaurant customers across the U.S. Northeast as the theft of used cooking oil intensifies nationwide, according to reporting by OPIS, the oil pricing service.
The company says hundreds of thefts have been recorded at customer locations over the past several years. Outdoor storage bins are proving especially vulnerable, particularly at restaurants that lack adequate lighting, surveillance cameras, or other basic security measures.
In one recent case flagged by OPIS, approximately 45,000 pounds of stolen used cooking oil were traced to a refinery in Pennsylvania. A separate incident involved some 12,000 gallons of stolen oil, along with cash seized by law enforcement.
The North American Renderers Association estimates that U.S. used cooking oil theft totaled between $300 million and $500 million last year alone, underscoring how rising demand for low-carbon fuel feedstocks has lifted the value of collected oil.
Used cooking oil now competes directly with soybean oil and animal fats in renewable fuel markets, adding yet another pressure point to the broader agricultural feedstock supply chain at a time when biofuel producers are paying record prices for low-carbon inputs.
Source: RFD-TV