Abstract:

Asian countries export most of the UCO in the world. 4 While import volumes fluctuate annually, the UN Comtrade Database shows that approximately 15% of the UCO imported by the United States comes from Asia. A recent ICCT study estimated how much UCO is currently collected, and the potential for additional collection, in six major UCO-exporting countries in Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and the Republic of Korea. The study estimated the potential for UCO collection from urban households, urban restaurants, and food processing, the sectors and regions from which it is easiest to collect UCO. The work also considered how much UCO currently goes to other uses within each country and to export, to assess the potential availability of what is inherently a limited resource. We further estimated the total amount of fuel that could be produced from current collection and explored the risk of re-use as gutter oil. The term gutter oil describes waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, sewer drains, grease traps, and slaughterhouse waste that is then illicitly re-sold as cooking oil in grocery stores.