An Increasingly Hot (and Slippery) Commodity

Around these parts, the hot target of thefts of opportunity is copper wire, usually taken from a mine site. That may change, however, as the latest target on the national stage gains prominence - grease. That's right, grease. As this article from the New York Times explains, what was once basically a waste by-product of restaurants is now worth quite a bit:

Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

'Fryer grease has become gold,' Mr. Damianidis said. 'And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.'

But it's just junk, right, so what's the harm? Well, not anymore:

Much to the surprise of Mr. Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks.

In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon.

One imagines that catching these thieves will be, well, slippery.