Grease Collection
When people look for used vegetable oil they shouldn't use just anything--what they are looking for is "liquid gold." In the collection and rendering industry the term used is Yellow Grease. Yellow Grease is used cooking oil that has not been mixed with water and is inedible. Often yellow grease is inappropriately labeled as a waste product when in fact collection and rendering is a billion dollar industry.
When dealing with used cooking oil in the SVO world people sometimes use the term RVO for Recycled Vegetable Oil, but more commonly it is called WVO for Waste Vegetable Oil. Either way, used vegetable oil typically has many particles and impurities from cooking that need to be filtered out and people accomplish this in a number of fascinating methods.
Grease History
The collection and reuse of Fat, Oil and Grease (FOG) at an industrial level started to be used as a machine lubricant around the Second World War. Oil that had been used for cooking with was still good; it only needed processing to remove the impurities. The emerging yellow grease industry grew immensely with the fast food explosion of the 50's. Meanwhile, traditional markets for this product, such as soap, shifted to petroleum-based synthetics. Cattle farmers looking to fatten their cows for the hamburger boom turned to the rendered yellow grease as economic animal feed. Today nearly all of yellow grease goes to animal feed. In recent years a small percent of the commodity is used to make biodiesel. If an individual would like to buy rendered oil they could for the average price of 70 cents a gallon. However, the thick goop is better suited for processing into biodiesel. Typically, individuals or small groups aim to collect only the best quality yellow grease that is out there. The best way is to make arrangements with a restaurant to set it aside.