New to this forum & WVO/SVO. Was talking with a potential WVO source this AM. Up until this year they had been paying to have their WVO hauled away, but in the past year or so they now get an annual check from the oil collection service. They produce about 4 55-gal barrels every 2 months in WVO (which sounds just about right to supply my primary-driver 94 Chevy 24/7).

The question is, if I were to pay them to take their WVO away, how much would it be worth? My sense is that it would have to be a bit more than the current "vendor," but I can't imagine that it's worth more than about $0.50/gal.

Any insight would be appreciated!

dhbmedic

Well , since its an annual check , the time lag is a big problem .
Paying to get rid of was common 2 yrs ago , getting paid for it was a yr. ago , diesel at $4 a gal.
Now the last 6 mths. , diesel is down , so paying little to nothing for WVO .
I've been collecting for about 2 yrs. , never paid yet .
So if your sources want to get paid , you should get daily quotes & go from there .
Do a search here , there have been some links for commercial pricing .

Here in New Hampshire the renders were paying restaurants 10 cents / gallon last year and signed contracts with the restaurants to that effect. Now that fuel prices have plummeted, they are no longer paying for oil and are now back to charging the restaurants to pick up oil.

I don’t pay for oil and I don’t want to start doing so anytime soon. If you want to pay for it, get it from a fellow producer who has already done the leg work of getting the accounts, has the equipment to collect the oil and has done all the hard work to pick it up.

Also be careful to monitor what you're paying for. Most corporate renderers will take anything they throw in the barrel. Often we have to re-eductate them that only oil goes in there- no food,wash water, etc...

We collect from 35+ sources, only pay 1 because we didnt want to lose them last fall. We are ready to tell them we are done paying as soon as I stop procrastinating about it, havent paid them since March 1

Just follow the lead of the commercial renderers.

Put the suppliers on a contract to pay an amount for their oil then reneg on it a few months later with some lame excuse without having paid a thing. Apparently that's the way the industry works.

Alternately you could make sure you have investigated every possible source and spoken to them a number of time before paying for the garbage they in the main have to dispose of.
I think most veggers have the wrong mindset that they feel guilty about getting something for nothing. In many places the suppliers are thinking they have got a good deal and solved a problem by veggers taking their waste away for them.

If I were in a place where veg was in short supply or the restaurateurs have had to pay for removal in the past, I'd be putting them on a long term, personally favorable ( to me) contract to take the stuff away for nothing. Selling oneself doesn't seem to be a strong suit of many of those interested in veg but in my experience, a little goes a long way and can be very profitable in an oily way.

I get it all for free. I will never pay.

I had one place that wanted payment and a contract/agreement but I refused. I don't need any records floating around that tells anyone (health department) that I am collecting/hauling waste veggie oil.

Perhaps you can slip the owner some cash, but keep no records.

My suppliers keep their rendering containers and put my oil in separate containers/carboys. I always give them a gift of some sort for their effort/support.

Just my $.02

Patronize the restaurant. My suppliers know that I spend more in their rest. than any renderer would pay for the WVO.

Their oil(not the slop) is/will be worth about $1.50 per gallon to the renderer/collection company. This is discussed quite a bit on these forums in various sections.

To the restaurant owner in your average midwest town their oil should be worth about 10-20 cents per gallon. It isn't fair anymore for oil collectors to charge them to pick it up. Never was, to be honest, but that was back in the days of easy money...

So save them some money if you can while not stepping on toes and everyone should be happy.

"Fair"??? It wasn't FAIR for someone to take the risk of starting a business to provide a needed service for restaurants and charge a small fee. And PAY for a truck and driver to provide that service, then to pay the cost to render the oil useful for other purposes. All this instead of restaurants throwing the oil away in a dumpster and you use the term "FAIR"??? I thought that's what free enterprise and capitalism was all about.

quote:

Originally posted by john galt:
It becomes 'unfair' when organized crime 'discourages' competition and creates a monopoly.

Of course...free-enterprise should always be based on fair competion, supply and demand. You will always have someone trying to get an unfair advantage and that's what our laws are "supposed to protect". But I'm afraid too many of those that are supposed to uphold the law are using it for their own personal gain. Case in point in the news this morning... MurTech won no-bid gov't contracts or were the "only" bidder.... Oh, the owner, nephew of Senator Murtha...

Been checking the price and nothing was posted til today:

WVO worth 22.5 cents per pound as of 5-14-09

Multiply by 7.6 for your value per gallon. Really thought the high price would drive more product into the market and bring the price down but this hasn't happened yet.

Traditionally yellow grease has been worth say 12-17 cents per pound as a cheaper alternative to tallow as a flavor and protein enhancer etc in feed, or as an ingredient for the cosmetic industry. Can someone provide me an explanation other than dollar inflation to explain the high price?

To do the same with all alternatives for many years .
Make it so they can claim that it does not work , or if it does it costs too much ect.

quote:

Originally posted by clean and green:Can someone provide me an explanation other than dollar inflation to explain the high price?

Biodiesel refineries creating more demand?

quote:

Originally posted by Carimbo:
Biodiesel refineries creating more demand?

Unfortunately that is not the case. Biodiesel production is down from its all time high, but yellow grease prices are approaching their historic highs.

Quite true. And when we look at the other side of the equation, the supply side, restaurant business is down (except for McDonalds), they aren't changing out the oil in their fryers quite as often, so there is simply less of the stuff out there.

As I've mentioned before, 22 cents per pound is historically a very high price, so if a prudent rendering company was able to stockpile product to hold until the price was right, as it is now, we would see this stored oil 'flood' the market and drive prices back down, which simply isn't happening.

Just think about the people out there that save their aluminum cans until the price for aluminum goes up. We were all trained by the commodity boom of 07-08 to expect metals to trend really high occasionally. Those high prices were mostly a result of speculation, not true market forces. It just seems to me that high yellow grease prices right now could be the result of a similar speculative bubble - in other words, lots of newly printed dollars that have to land somewhere. Gold has risen every day this week. Petroleum is nearing $60 again on what demand?

Super. Let's start growing cows for their fat content. We can use the waste byproducts to feed poor people steak all day to make them feel rich, and leather jackets for everyone!

quote:

Originally posted by clean and green:
Super. Let's start growing cows for their fat content. We can use the waste byproducts to feed poor people steak all day to make them feel rich, and leather jackets for everyone!

Sounds like a plan....EXCEPT FOR: the number of cows would take up too much land, therefore upsetting the wilderness activist crowd, PITA would sue you for violating the cow's rights, the global warming crowd would protest the amount of flatulence generated, and and since only a large corporation could produce and manage the number of cows required, Obama would demonize them as greedy corporate shmucks and tax them out of business or drive their business (and jobs) to Mexico...

Good idea clean and green, but you've got to think these things thru.

Oops. I forgot to add a at the end to let our humorless forum members know I was being facetious. So, in case you missed it,

I knew your were...I was following suit....

In that case a smiley would also have been helpful. There are people on these boards with absolutely no sense of humor.