Thieves siphon off restaurant grease, slip away with profits

Tres Dausey was walking out of a business on Trolley Road in Summerville about two months ago when he noticed an unmarked truck with a tank on the back stop behind a fast-food restaurant.

Dausey, who once owned a grease-recycling business, thought something was amiss.

He approached the guy, who already had hitched his hose to a vat of used cooking oil behind the diner, and asked the man what he was doing.

The man immediately threw his hose on the truck, jumped inside and sped off.

Dausey said the vehicle did not have a license tag or any company markings.

"There's no doubt in my mind it was a grease thief," Dausey said.

Lured by easy profits, back-alley grease pirates siphon off profits from restaurants, which sell their used grease to recyclers. They also rob from legitimate collectors who have contracted to take away the spent kitchen grease.

One local collector, Carolina By-Products, a subsidiary of Virginia-based Valley Proteins Inc., noticed a 30 percent to 40 percent drop in collections during the past year.

"We have seen a serious drop in the volume of grease we collect at restaurants," said Steve Wilkerson, a Carolina By-Products consultant who once worked for 47 years in the industry before retiring. "We are missing a lot of grease. Somebody is beating us to it."

The problem is so bad that the Hospitality Association of South Carolina will include an advisory in its upcoming newsletter to warn its 2,300 members statewide to be on the lookout and keep their outdoor grease containers locked up.

"A truck will come in and pump out the grease in the dark of night and leave the box empty and the restaurant not getting any money," said Tom Sponseller, president of the state Hospitality Association.

A lock is a good idea, but it is not a total deterrent, Wilkerson said.

Thieves cut the locks or pry open the corner of containers, he said. They even concoct improvised devices to siphon off the new liquid gold through bars on top of the collection tanks. The bars are there to prevent large objects from entering the container when spent oil is poured in.

"They frequently destroy the tank lids where grease is stored," Wilkerson said. "They are stealing from the restaurant and stealing the product from us."

Chip Roberts, co-owner of the Kickin' Chicken restaurant chain, said it's a recurring problem at his establishments in Mount Pleasant and Summerville and on James Island.

He estimates the company has lost about $2,000 from grease theft over the past year or so.

Wilkerson cited two other examples of recent oil heists: one at a fast-food restaurant on Rivers Avenue and another behind a Savannah Highway grocery store.

The grease tank at the Rivers Avenue business is inside the restaurant, but it has a pipe going to the outside for access to collectors. The thief broke the lock, destroyed the cap and emptied the storage tank.

In the supermarket incident, the manager witnessed someone retrieving the spent grease behind the store, and it was not Carolina By-Products, the company under contract to collect it, Wilkerson said.

Chris Griffin, director of legal affairs with grease collector Griffin Industries, which also operates in Charleston, estimates the nationwide company loses more than 1 million pounds of used cooking grease each week, adding that the problem is not unique to the Kentucky-based company.

"It is an industry-wide problem that spent cooking oil recycling companies experience from coast to coast," he said.

Grease theft is so rife that Griffin Industries employs three people just to investigate it.

Wilkerson suspects the black-market bandits are commercial operators collecting it to sell, and home brewers using it for biodiesel fuel.

"Individuals don't have the ability to clean up large amounts and sell it to a feed mill," he said.

Dausey agreed.

"They are not going to pick it up and sit on it," he said. "They have a deal worked out with somebody."

Legitimate collectors, called renderers, take used grease to recycling plants where it's converted into yellow grease and eventually sprayed on feed pellets for chickens, turkeys, hogs and pets to improve the taste.

"It's basic recycling," Wilkerson said. "It originates in the food chain and stays there."

Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association which represents 39 companies nationwide that handle 90 percent of the used grease and animal by-products recycling business, said the problem is widespread but he doesn't know the total extent of it because members don't report their losses to the agency.

The group has commissioned a survey of its members, due in October, to get a better handle on how much grease is actually being taken.

"It is a problem," Cook said. "With the increased value of it, there is more of it being stolen."

Cook said demand for the spent grease can be tied to greater interest in the biofuel industry because the government subsidizes production.

"If not, there would be less value for the product," he said.

Restaurants, such as Kickin' Chicken, pay about 66 cents per pound for cooking oil. Tied to fluctuating commodity values, the spent grease is then sold for about 5 to 10 cents a pound to recyclers such as Carolina By-Products. Once it's processed into yellow grease, it can be sold for about 20 cents a pound to livestock and pet-food industries.

Kaleb Little, spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board, said the price of spent grease is a definite factor in the rise of theft.

Like anything else, "when it's more valuable, it's more likely to be stolen," Little said.

He suggested buyers know who they are buying spent cooking oil from by asking for their credentials.

Cook, of the Renderers Association, said it's also important for restaurant owners to realize that the spent grease is not garbage once it's discarded.

"It's important to let people know it's a product that has value and is owned by somebody," he said.