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Activists seek regulation on sale of used cooking oil
A coalition of civil society groups has urged the city administration to prohibit food-industry businesses from selling used cooking oil to dealers who then resell it
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coalition of civil society groups has urged the city administration to prohibit food-industry businesses from selling used cooking oil to dealers who then resell it.
Muhammad Suhud, a member of the coalition, said that in light of the health risks posed by recycled cooking oil, the coalition would push the administration to issue a regulation prohibiting its sale as soon as possible.
'We want the regulation to be issued before 2016,' Suhud told The Jakarta Post during a recent campaign event in Central Jakarta.
The regulation, he said, should require food businesses, such as restaurants, to sell their used cooking oil to biodiesel fuel-processing companies officially listed by the administration.
'Cooking oil can be used to fry food a maximum of three times. After three uses, cooking oil becomes unfit for consumption. It should, therefore, be processed into biodiesel fuel,' he said.
The regulation should also require food businesses to sell their used cooking oil at lower prices, he added.
Dealers normally buy used cooking oil at Rp 5,000 (36 US cents) per liter from restaurants and hotels, a good price for dealers given that recycled cooking oil can fetch Rp 8,000 and Rp 10,000 per liter when resold.
'The dealers earn large profits from this business because it costs them only Rp 500 to recycle one liter of used cooking oil,' Suhud said.
Biodiesel fuel companies, he said, would not be able to compete with dealers if the government did not step in, since a liter of biodiesel fuel is sold at Rp 6,500 per liter, while companies' production costs reach Rp 3,000 for each liter of biodiesel fuel.
A reasonable price for used cooking oil for biodiesel companies ranged would be between Rp 1,500 and Rp 2,000 per liter, he suggested.
'The administration should prioritize the health impacts of an eventual regulation above all other considerations. In any case, hotels and restaurants normally treat used cooking oil as waste, so it won't be a problem for them to sell it cheaper,' he said.
Rizka Sari, another member of the coalition and a staffer at the British Embassy, said that the administration should learn from the failure of Bogor and Bali to secure regular supplies of used cooking oil for biodiesel fuel production.
Bogor and Bali's pioneering projects to process used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel ran aground on the respective administrations' failure to issue regulations requiring food businesses to sell their used cooking oil to biodiesel fuel companies.
'Biodiesel fuel companies are now in [financial] trouble,' Rizka said.
The food industry in Jakarta alone produces about 300,000 liters of used cooking oil daily. 'This is a huge amount that could potentially be processed into biodiesel fuel,' she said.
Separately, Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama said that a plan to regulate used cooking oil had been on the cards since he was the city's deputy governor. Ahok was promoted to governor to replace Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo when the latter became President last November.
However, Ahok said, collecting used cooking oil had proved more difficult than expected, and treating the oil was also costly.
'We will regulate the sale of used cooking oil. However, there are several aspects we need to study. I don't know if we can [issue the regulation by the end of the month], but we will certainly get round to regulating it,' Ahok told reporters at City Hall recently. (saf)
