Therefore UBC officially recommends that under no circumstances is anyone in Salt Lake County to collect oil and in fact we recommend contacting these collection companies directly.  See lower in this page for this contact info. 
 
3. This is our final point.  Grease, in no way, shape, or form, is "garbage" or "free" or anything remotely similar.  It is a real commodity that is traded on the Chicago Commodities exchange.  When processed, each of the renderers gets about $1.29 (Jan 2006) a gallon for this.  This means if you steal 50 gallons of grease, you are directly stealing $70 in proffitt from the company who's barrell you are removing grease from.  This means that those of you who have stolen hundreds of gallons have literally stolen hundreds, if not thousands of dollars directly from these companies and again this is not fair. 
If you wish to pursue the concept of doing grease collection legally and fairly, please keep reading... 
 

SHORT TERM SOLUTIONS: 

In the short term, UBC will be working with the grease collection agencies to try to come up with a solution that will allow people in Salt Lake County to purchase oil directly from these renderers once we come over a few hurdles.  They are: 

• Coming up with indemnification [removal of liability] contracts for the grease renderers.  The idea is "if you blow yourself up making fuel" then it is not their fault [as it should not be.]
• Coming up with a reasonable price structure for home brewers as very few people are willing to spend $1.29 a gallon for grease.
• At this time, as far as we know, Salt Lake County is the only county with these laws.  That said is it not cool in any way to, again, steal grease from the barrel of one of these companies.  If you wish to setup your own accounts, that is fine but there are some major issues to this as well -- read below.
• We are thinking of establishing the requirements for a grease hauler's permit under UBC for our members but this is just an idea at this point and will require these steps be done in a safe, constructive and friendly manner with the grease collection companies.  Remember these companies are our allies for biodiesel in Utah especially in the long term.  In a few years, bio-dieselers could be some of their best customers and vice versa.

LONG TERM SOLUTIONS: 

The long term solution that UBC envisions is largely dependent on UBC's vision of a "biodiesel central" that we hope to have setup somewhere in the Salt Lake area before 2007 if we are lucky.  Our goal is to have all grease, chemicals, and even processors that members can use, in place.  We will sell the grease dirt cheap, something like $.25 - $.50 a gallon if we are lucky, so it is not only cheap but by far the best and easiest way to get grease as well.  If you interested in helping with this long term vision, again, contact us with your interest and this will be a neat and our most challenging task to date as an organization. 

THOUGHTS ON COLLECTION GREASE: 

UBC has also found that independent home brewers are also, for the most part, "not very good grease collectors."  We recommend that individuals not try to setup accounts with restaurants for the following reasons: 

• We find most early biodiesel enthusiasts are "hot to trot" in the beginning and have big ideas but when the reality of collection grease (by far the most labor intensive, nasty, and time consuming aspect of biodiesel home brewing) sets in, two or three months down the road, the restaurant has a backlog of grease and they are upset. This means you are also giving the biodiesel homebrewer a bad name!
• If you go on vacation, are busy, or whatever other reason and cannot take the grease.  These restaurants get angry and it is a commitment you must be dedicated to - like feeding a dog or something like that - only monthly.
• Winter - collecting grease in winter sucks and is almost impossible when really cold if the barrel is outside.
• In the past, some have recommended that some collectors [not in Salt Lake County] place their barrels there "first" and have them fill the grease collector's barrels second.  This only slightly works as well as a barrel weighs upwards of 400 lbs, again you can't always get to it, and a number of other issues.  Also this still pisses off the grease collectors so please keep this all in mind.

So -- These ARE THE REALITIES of collecting grease.... 

If you are still thinking of collecting grease, then please read the following info in early 2005.  Below are the bare minimum thoughts if you are still thinking of collecting grease.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this: 

Andre Shoumatoff 
Director, Utah Biodiesel Cooperative 
 
 

Be prepared before you go visit a restaraunt. You typically will want to talk with the "person in charge" or the manager there. Come prepared with literature on Biodiesel. Leave a brochure and then indicate that you'll stop by again to discuss it with them. Try to anticipate as many questions as you can and be prepared with answers. Remember, Biodiesel is fairly new and not many people will have heard of it.

Typically, the slowest time in most restaraunts is between 2PM and 4PM. People have already had lunch and aren't quite coming in for dinner yet. This is the slowest, and best opportune time, to meet with a manager.

Questions to be prepared for:

• 1- What will you be using it for?
• 2- Why do you want MY oil?
• 3- If I give it to you, can you guarantee consistency in picking it up?
• 4- Is there a possible tax write-off?

When and be clear that you are NOT representaive of Utah Biodiesel Cooperative in any way and that you are your own person.  Please be polite, professional and courteous. The restaraunt business in Utah is a tight-knit group. One bad experience can blow it for the rest of us... 

If you run into a big problem, you can always call the people that pick it up from the restaraunts and buy it from them:
 
 

Renegade Oil 1141 S 3200 West SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84104 - 4562 (801) 973-7912   Bonneville Livestock Inc 9300 N 10420 West LEHI, UT 84043 (801) 768-4491

Kuhni John Sons 2700 S Kuhni Rd PROVO, UT 84606 - 6270 (801) 373-7600   Cache Valley By Products 2860 W 8600 N AMALGA, UT (435) 563-5807