Posted on 06/10/2012 7:10:59 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
City thieves are getting slipperier.
They’ve taken to ripping off the rancid cooking oil left at the curb by restaurants — as the list of strange “commodities” sought by sticky-fingered opportunists grows.
In a sputtering economy, the price of resale goods like cardboard, scrap metal, old appliances and even grease has spiked — and criminals have taken notice.
Used cooking oil cost next to nothing four years ago. Now it goes for 38 cents a pound. Cardboard and other paper goods went for about 1 cent a pound two years ago. Now it costs 6 cents.
“It’s really crazy out here with this grease,” said Eddie, a truck driver who picks up used oil in Brooklyn. “I went to one of my stops, and I actually saw a guy pumping grease out with a vacuum cleaner.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
That could be some poor soul’s retirement grease.
Annualized inflation: >>100%.
Cardboard and other paper goods went for about 1 cent a pound two years ago. Now it costs 6 cents.
Annualized inflation rate: 145%
Official inflation rate: 2%. Inflation is "contained."
Finders keepers?
This reminds me of a different era.
Maybe 20 years ago, my Grandmother was in a nursing home after she broke her hip. Granddaddy was in better shape and still lived in their rural home.
One of their Daughters came by and cleaned up the kitchen. She found an old cast iron frying pan full of old grease. She poured it out and scrubbed the pan. She then refilled it with new oil.
A few days later, Daddy was visiting and Granddaddy complained that Aunt Mary must be selling cooking oil as she took his.
NYC is a little slow. They’ve been stealing the stuff around here for years. In fact a gang tried to break into my home this morning to abscond with my bacon drippings. After a brief but fierce gunfight the attackers withdrew.
Stick the nozzle of the shop vac into the tub of grease and turn on the power switch.
In China they just suck in right out of the gutter , clean it , then sell for cooking ,yummmmmm
You can heat your home with used cooking oil or used motor oil.
A wood burning furnace can be hooked up with an oil dripper that doesn't burn the wood unless the oil drip stops, the wood works as a wick as long as the oil is dripping on it.
I know of several auto repair shops that use them for heat.
They have a “Recycle your used oil here” sign out front, but the only recycling that get done is them burning it for heat in winter.
“How is it “stealing” if it’s left on the curb? Sounds to me like people are making use (and money!) of someone else’s waste.”
Because firms such as restaurants have contracts with a disposal service to get rid of their kitchen grease. (Dumping it down the drain is a BIG no-no...first because it’s illegal, second because it plugs up the grease trap faster.) The disposal companies leave a closed pickup container outside the building alongside the garbage dumpsters.
As to the vacuum question, the disposal services use a vacuum truck to empty grease dumpsters and undersink grease traps. Take it from somebody with experience...you DON’T want to be standing downwind of one of those when it’s doing its job!!!
YEARS ago, some appliance dealer in NYC had a trade-in sale - no matter how useless the item was, he’d take it. It was wildly successful, but the downside was that he was stuck with all these broken washers, refrigerators and stoves.
He put them out on the curb for the sanitation department to pick up, but they wouldn’t touch it - he’d have to contract for their removal, which would cost him some big bucks.
Getting a flash of inspiration, he put a “SALE! $10!” tag on each one and left them out overnight. By morning they were all gone.
Shop vacs must be really different than house vacs.
I used to know some people who lived in Manhattan, and they told me that they had the dirt stolen out of a planter (the planter itself couldn’t be stolen as it was actually the top of a low concrete wall).
It costs a lot less than $4.00 a gallon to turn that old cooking oil into diesel fuel.
Just look for slippery criminals.
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