Buffalo Biodiesel reports 96 incidents of UCO theft in 1 week

Buffalo Biodiesel, a renewable energy company operating throughout the Northeast, announced that between Nov. 4-10 there were a total of 96 oil thefts across seven states.

In most of the theft incidents, individuals broke a lock and then are believed to have utilized a drum pump to remove used cooking oil (UCO) from the vats.

Buffalo Biodiesel said it is working with local, county and state law-enforcement agencies in each of these municipalities to bring those responsible to justice.

It is estimated that thousands of gallons of UCO were stolen.

Buffalo Biodiesel operates across 15 states and pays small businesses for their UCO.

These suppliers contribute to a more sustainable future by allowing their waste to be repurposed.

This additional income stream helps bolster their financial stability.

Over the past several years, theft of oil from the company has become a rampant problem.

In 2022, theft of oil amounted to lost revenue of over $15 million, according to Buffalo Biodiesel.

This includes an average of 268 thefts per month across 3,000-plus locations.

Losses in 2023 are between $20 million and $25 million.

Losses in 2024 are expected to exceed that.

It isn’t just Buffalo Biodiesel losing money, however; it’s also restaurants who are not getting the extra income for selling their used oil.

“Getting robbed is not fair,” said Buffalo Biodiesel President and CEO Sumit Majumdar. “Our customers are hard-working business owners—a majority of them small business—who rely on every cent possible to be successful.”

While the theft of cooking oil might seem strange to some, taking these materials to resell means big bucks to others.

“They’ll aggregate that oil and sell it through a broker, so that way, it’s kind of washed,” Majumdar said. “And it’ll go off to a refinery, and they’re making a lot of money. Imagine a person in a van making $400,000 a year in cash—tax-free—all for cooking oil.”

The U.S. attorney’s office is aware of how rampant a problem this is nationally.

“Legitimate businesses, known renderers, collect used cooking oil from restaurants in exchange [for] compensation and sell it to refineries so that it can be processed and recycled,” wrote the U.S. attorney’s office in 2019. “The rendering industry estimates that there is an annual loss of approximately $45 million to $75 million from the theft of used cooking oil.”

Buffalo Biodiesel has attempted to work with local, state and federal agencies to address this issue for years.

“Customers who have fallen victim to these thefts say that thieves are getting bolder, taking oil during regular business hours,” Majumdar said. “Part of the problem is lack of accountability even when apprehended by law enforcement. They’re getting a slap on the wrist. That, coupled with a lack of motivation to address the thefts by many police departments and district attorneys’ offices, are why it’s expanding, that’s why it’s ballooning.”