Free Republic

U.S. incentives to boost consumption of more environmentally friendly fuel has created a new market for used Chinese cooking oil, worth almost $390 million in the last 12 months and growing rapidly, China's customs data shows. China has been shipping more waste oil to the U.S. since October 2022, two months after the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to promote clean energy, which included tax credits for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and extended incentives for biodiesel. In the first eight months of 2023, Chinese exports of used cooking oil (UCO) to the U.S. totalled almost...

Two residents have died in the past week after queuing for cooking oil at local shops in Indonesia. South China Morning Post/Aisyah Llewellyn Indonesia’s cooking oil shortage has turned deadly following the deaths of two residents who died after queuing for the liquid gold in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The tragedies occurred despite the area being one of the largest producers of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and fresh palm oil fruit in Indonesia. On Saturday, a housewife Sandra, 41, fainted while queuing for over an hour in the hot sun waiting for her local minimarket to open....

Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of cooking oil, will reduce exports of edible oils as a domestic shortage sparks panic hoarding among households, a sign of rising protectionism around the world as countries deal with record-high food prices, according to Bloomberg. Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi announced new rules Wednesday for palm oil exporters to increase domestic shipment volumes from 20% to 30% to ensure local consumers have access to affordable cooking oil. The move by the Indonesian government comes as dwindling cooking oil supplies has unleashed record high prices. Togar Sitanggang, vice chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki),...

British Airways operated its first-ever carbon-neutral flight powered by recycled cooking oil this week, a major step in the airline’s goal to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The plane traveled from London Heathrow to Glasgow Airport on Tuesday and was powered directly by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) provided by British multinational gas giant BP, according to a British Airways press release. The flight’s SAF was blended at 35 percent with traditional jet fuel “in accordance with technical aviation specifications,” according to British Airways.

Full title: A man broke into a woman's house in Alabama with a gun, police say. She countered with a pot of hot grease Larondrick Macklin, 31, was arrested in Alabama after police say he broke into a woman's home and she threw hot grease on him. Police in Alabama say a man suffered burns across his face after he broke into a woman's house with a gun and she defended herself with a pot of hot grease. According to a statement from the Decatur Police Department, police responded to a call of a domestic dispute last Thursday and discovered...

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...

September 13, 2011, 7:36 PM HKT. Arrests Made in China ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal Police have arrested 32 people suspected of producing and selling old cooking oil that has been illegally collected from restaurant gutters, according to a Ministry of Public Security statement Tuesday (in Chinese). The statement said officials seized 100 tons of the recycled oil, which can contain carcinogens and other toxins that are harmful when consumed by humans. It said they also broke up a criminal network operating in 14 provinces and shut production sites where the oil is repurposed. The suspects were caught in a swill-oil crackdown...

Middletown — They come in tanker trucks, mostly at night, to steal the liquid still smelling of fried chicken, tacos and egg rolls. Used cooking oil is as good as gold these days, a consequence of rising crude oil prices and demand for biodiesel. That's put companies that collect the used material from restaurants on guard, industry officials said. "Sometimes, they're very brazen; they'll come in the early morning or the afternoon and stick a hose in the container and siphon it out," said Jack LaBerta, account manager for Darling International, a national renderer with a plant in Newark, N.J....

NORTH BERGEN – They were just a bunch of greasy criminals. Byung Ho Choi, left, and Youngil Kim were arrested on two counts of theft each. Township police arrested two men Monday morning in the process of sucking 700 gallons of used cooking oil from two storage tanks behind a Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant.

A French group which advocates the use of cooking oil to run vehicles had its novel fuel confiscated by Danish police on the ground it could be used to make bombs during the Copenhagen climate talks. Members of the association "Roule ma Frite" (Roll on Fries) had travelled to the Danish capital on a bus powered by used vegetable oil -- but their return home now hangs in the balance. "Police came and confiscated the oil for our return journey on the ground that it could be used to make bombs," Gregory Gendre, the coordinator of the group, told AFP....

She was beautiful but wanted to be more beautiful. This is a horror story. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS HORRIBLE STORY TO BELIEVE IT

The delivery received a warm welcome from the local populace and many thanks from town leaders. BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 28, 2005 — Elements of 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division provided food, cooking utensils and cleaning supplies July 22 to residents of Kindi, a neighborhood north of the International Zone. The supplies were delivered in the form of a Rhode pack, a sustenance package of more than one ton of food and supplies that included rice, beans, canned fish and meat, vegetables, cooking oil, dessert treats, pots and pans, serving utensils, and propane stoves....

U.S. soldiers brought food and school supplies to residents of the Khadamiyah area in Baghdad. CAMP TIGERLAND, Iraq, June 30, 2005 — The 256th Brigade Combat Team Civil Affairs and the 256th Brigade Combat Team’s 199th Forward Support Battalion collaborated on June 25 to bring 15 tons of food, two tons of school supplies, and more than 2,000 Beanie Babies to the residents of the Khadamiyah area in Baghdad. The items were gifts from the Association of Korean Americans and Operation Iraqi Children. The local Government Information Center connected the soldiers with various charity organizations to help distribute the supplies...

Drivers trying to beat rising fuel costs have discovered a cheaper means of powering their cars - cooking oil. They are mixing the oil, which costs 32p a litre, with methanol and using it in place of diesel, which retails at about 74p. Police and Customs officers are trying to tackle the problem by sniffing out offenders, whose cars give off a distinctive "chip shop" smell. An increasing number of motorists in Llanelli, west Wales, are filling their tanks with cooking oil in place of diesel after word spread. The town's Asda supermarket sells more cooking oil than any other...