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If you wonder where all this cooking oil comes from? Go to China. Regularly you see old, small trucks with open containers and a worker collecting the oil strai

If you wonder where all this cooking oil comes from? Go to China. Regularly you see old, small trucks with open containers and a worker collecting the oil straight from the sewer. If you pass them you automatically go to the other side of the street because of the smell. (This probably exists everywhere, but the capture system used in my country is more or less invisible for the bystander) Apparently there is a lot of oil produced by all the restaurants. Dirty fact, when I lived in China, the scandal of the day was counterfeit oil (underground oil). The original idea was to use this oil for fuel. However these fuel converter factories went bankrupt because another industry found a higher value: refine the oil and distribute it as new in counterfeit containers.

SkyPuncher 3y ago
These containers are allll over the place, but you probably don't notice them. Most commonly, I see them as the tiny little dumpster next to the main dumpster. Can be hard to spot since most of them are in a dumpster corale.
amluto 3y ago
Are you sure that’s the sewer? Even in China, the goal of sewer management is to keep things flowing at reasonable cost. In the US, there are two widespread solutions: 1. The ultimate in cost reduction: a 55 gallon drum out back. When it’s full, someone collects it. It’s far more cost effective to dump your oil in a 55 gallon drum than to dump it in a sink and hope you don’t immediately have to call a plumber to clean up the mess. 2. A grease trap: a not-particularly-expensive device like this: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/4235/grease-traps.html https://www.webstaurantstore.com/4235/grease-traps.html Are you sure the tricks weren’t collecting oil from drums and grease traps? I’ve never looked at oil collection in China. But here’s a Wikipedia article showing what looks like 55 gallon drums: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil
- organsnyder 3y ago
  Grease traps are required in all commercial kitchens here in Michigan. AFAIK they're more intended to protect the sewer system rather than for day-to-day grease disposal.
  - amluto 3y ago
    I think they’re required in California too. In any case, there are multiple companies that will compete to collect your kitchen grease out of that 55 gallon drum, for free. Maybe they’ll even pay if the kitchen makes enough grease — that mess is valuable! I suspect that most kitchens pay for grease trap service, as it’s more labor and equipment intensive and the resulting extracted crud may be more of a mess than a valuable commodity.
    - tycho-newman 3y ago
      This was a whole Simpsons episode.
- j-a-a-p 3y ago
  > Are you sure that’s the sewer? It are always grease traps, but it is the same pipe that is used by the toilet, so I would say it is technically just the sewer. And ss the saying goes: if it looks like sewer, smells like sewer, it probably is sewer :-)
  - amluto 3y ago
    Huh? Why on earth would anyone plumb their toilet into the grease trap? There’s probably some cross-contamination from sewage getting into the grease trap outlet, but that doesn’t mean that toilet waste flows through it. There’s also lots of contamination from people washing their hands, cleaning meat and fish, washing dirty vegetables [0], etc in the kitchen sink. Certainly one ought not to eat anything extracted from the grease trap, but one also ought not to eat anything extracted from the grease collection barrel.
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- deleted 3y ago
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andy_ppp 3y ago
Are you sure it wasn't just a stinky tofu stand? :-D
- j-a-a-p 3y ago
  Don't get me started. If you ever have eaten that, don't click on this link and surely don't scroll down to the stinky tofu paragraph (1) (1) don't click: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China
talldatethrow 3y ago
Look up Gutter Oil on YouTube. Supposedly people clean it up and resell it to restaurants. We should be so lucky that they only resell it for burning for heat and engines.
hulitu 3y ago
> If you wonder where all this cooking oil comes from? Go to China. I think that your local McDonalds is much closer.

SkyPuncher 3y ago

These containers are allll over the place, but you probably don't notice them. Most commonly, I see them as the tiny little dumpster next to the main dumpster. Can be hard to spot since most of them are in a dumpster corale.

amluto 3y ago

Are you sure that’s the sewer? Even in China, the goal of sewer management is to keep things flowing at reasonable cost. In the US, there are two widespread solutions: 1. The ultimate in cost reduction: a 55 gallon drum out back. When it’s full, someone collects it. It’s far more cost effective to dump your oil in a 55 gallon drum than to dump it in a sink and hope you don’t immediately have to call a plumber to clean up the mess. 2. A grease trap: a not-particularly-expensive device like this: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/4235/grease-traps.html https://www.webstaurantstore.com/4235/grease-traps.html Are you sure the tricks weren’t collecting oil from drums and grease traps? I’ve never looked at oil collection in China. But here’s a Wikipedia article showing what looks like 55 gallon drums: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

organsnyder 3y ago
Grease traps are required in all commercial kitchens here in Michigan. AFAIK they're more intended to protect the sewer system rather than for day-to-day grease disposal.
- amluto 3y ago
  I think they’re required in California too. In any case, there are multiple companies that will compete to collect your kitchen grease out of that 55 gallon drum, for free. Maybe they’ll even pay if the kitchen makes enough grease — that mess is valuable! I suspect that most kitchens pay for grease trap service, as it’s more labor and equipment intensive and the resulting extracted crud may be more of a mess than a valuable commodity.
  - tycho-newman 3y ago
    This was a whole Simpsons episode.
j-a-a-p 3y ago
> Are you sure that’s the sewer? It are always grease traps, but it is the same pipe that is used by the toilet, so I would say it is technically just the sewer. And ss the saying goes: if it looks like sewer, smells like sewer, it probably is sewer :-)
- amluto 3y ago
  Huh? Why on earth would anyone plumb their toilet into the grease trap? There’s probably some cross-contamination from sewage getting into the grease trap outlet, but that doesn’t mean that toilet waste flows through it. There’s also lots of contamination from people washing their hands, cleaning meat and fish, washing dirty vegetables [0], etc in the kitchen sink. Certainly one ought not to eat anything extracted from the grease trap, but one also ought not to eat anything extracted from the grease collection barrel.
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deleted 3y ago
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andy_ppp 3y ago

Are you sure it wasn't just a stinky tofu stand? :-D

j-a-a-p 3y ago
Don't get me started. If you ever have eaten that, don't click on this link and surely don't scroll down to the stinky tofu paragraph (1) (1) don't click: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China

talldatethrow 3y ago

Look up Gutter Oil on YouTube. Supposedly people clean it up and resell it to restaurants. We should be so lucky that they only resell it for burning for heat and engines.

hulitu 3y ago

> If you wonder where all this cooking oil comes from? Go to China. I think that your local McDonalds is much closer.