Grease Theft Goes Uncontested

Ever-increasing fuel prices have Nashville restaurants keeping a closer eye on their grease traps.

Until recently, Pamela Leonard of West End’s Acorn Restaurant was paying a company to haul off her used cooking grease. Then, she realized she never had to call the disposal company for a pick up. That’s because someone else was getting to it first. Leonard left the restaurant late one night, and caught the bandits in the act with a hose stuck in her grease bin.

“We said ‘hi,’ you know, ‘guys, what company are you with?’ They looked on the side of our grease trap and just said the name of the company that was written there.”

The grease bandits were there because, when refined, the stuff sells for roughly $2.50 a gallon. The “yellow grease” can be used to produce biodiesel and is worth five times what it was eight years ago.

With diesel prices soaring near five dollars a gallon, restaurants that had pay to dispose of their grease are now being paid for it. Leonard says she doesn’t mind if someone steals her grease, so long as they’re using for their own fuel refining purposes. But grease recycling companies aren’t so supportive. One such company, Kentucky-based Griffin Industries, has hired two investigators to look into thefts around the country.

A local company, Nashville Recycle, says they are seeing more instances of grease theft but aren’t actively searching out thieves. Metro Police say that no one has reported grease thefts so far this year.

Cities like San Francisco have capitalized on the high-valued grease. A new program offers free pick up. The city then refines it into biodiesel for use in the city’s vehicles.