China is known for many things, and gutter oil is one of them. Since Chinese food tends to use a lot of oil, it’s not uncommon for brazen opportunists and stingy food vendors to engage in the illegal extraction, processing and use of harmful gutter oil.

The reasons behind this illegal trade are unsurprising; it’s easy money for so-called entrepreneurs and a cost-cutting measure for street food vendors. Despite intervention from authorities, the underground gutter oil industry endures. Needless to say, if you’re in China and frequent street vendors, you may end up eating food cooked in gutter oil.

What Is Gutter Oil?

Gutter oil typically comes from a variety of food waste sources, including sewer drains, grease traps, discarded animal parts and restaurant oil dumps. Once extracted, the foul-smelling slop is mixed, boiled at high temperature and sold to food vendors throughout China at significantly discounted rates.

Gutter oil can be recognized by its dark color and unpleasant smell.  Consuming it can have negative consequences on people’s health. According to experts, gutter oil is extremely toxic and riddled with carcinogens, like aflatoxin and benzopyrene. Consuming gutter oil can also lead to diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and developmental problems in children.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped people from engaging in the dirty business of gutter oil production. The financial incentive seems too tempting to turn down and prevails over ethical food practices.

Although gutter oil is illegal in China, the country’s geographic vastness and the transient lifestyle of food vendors makes it difficult to for authorities to crack down on gutter oil offenders.

Reusing Cooking Oil in Georgia

As a commercial business owner, you’d likely never consider the illicit practice of cooking food with gutter oil. That’s not to say taking steps to make your cooking oil last as long as possible is a forbidden practice. In fact, it’s a popular economic option for restaurants and other establishments that deep fry copious quantities of food.

Is Oil Theft a Problem in Georgia?

Although gutter oil isn’t a big problem in the U.S., waste cooking oil theft is a real issue in this country. Your business’s cooking oil is valuable, and many businesses leave their cooking oil outside and relatively unprotected. Criminals can steal the oil and sell it to unscrupulous recyclers to make money. Not only does this result in a loss of revenue for food service businesses, it can also lead to messes and property damage.

At Southern Green Industries, we provide our waste oil recycling clients with secured storage options, and we regularly pickup waste oil so it’s not an easy target for criminals.  

Should You Recycle Cooking Oil?

Food service business owners of all types in Georgia can recoup a significant percentage of their oil costs by recycling their waste cooking oil with Southern Green Industries. Our convenient dashboard makes it easy for business clients to track exactly how much oil we collect and how much they are being paid for their recycled oil.

Strict, detailed records provide optimal transparency for our customers. You never need to worry if we’re shorting you on your recycled oil proceeds or claiming to have collected less waste oil than you produced. You can check your own records on your business’s oil consumption and match it to the oil we recycle on your behalf.

Recycling your business’s waste oil isn’t just a way to reduce your expenses; it’s also good for the environment. Some of the benefits include:

• Reduces landfill waste
• Produces renewable fuel
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions

Recycling Solutions for Commercial Used Fryer Oil in Atlanta, Georgia

With Southern Green Industries, recycling used fryer oil has never been easier. We’ll provide you with containers tailored to your business’s recycling needs and collect the oil at your convenience.

You’ll never have to dread heavy lifting, employee injuries or accidental spills and messy cleanups if you let us install an integrated oil management system (iOMS) for your business. What’s more, you’ll be paid top dollar for choosing us as your go-to oil recycling company.

You can also rely on us for affordable grease trap solutions, including installation, maintenance and cleaning.

If you have questions or would like to receive a free quote, call our Atlanta office at (404) 419-6887.