On paper, it looks like garbage: a murky slurry of fryer grease and crumbs left over from Friday fish fries and late-night wings. But in 2025, used cooking oil is no longer waste—it’s feedstock for the booming biofuels industry. That transformation has turned the back alleys behind New York’s restaurants into the front lines of a quiet, profitable crime wave.
In Western New York alone, Buffalo Biodiesel Inc. (BBD), a regional leader in collecting and recycling used cooking oil, says it has logged over 12,000 thefts and break-ins involving its equipment and oil since 2022. Tanks have been drained overnight. Locks and security seals have been cut. For BBD, this isn’t petty nuisance, but millions of dollars of product disappearing into the shadows.
As it turns out, the disappearances might not be so random…