The war begins.....
"Private companies began recycling cooking oil from San Francisco restaurants for biodiesel in 2004, according to Kevin Westley, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. Two firms now serve between 300 and 400 of the city's approximately 4,000 restaurants, he said.
The local king of San Francisco restaurant grease recycling is a third firm, Darling International, which sells the grease for a wide range of uses, including animal feed, boiler fuel, lubricant and paint, said Ron Palla, manager of Darling's San Francisco plant.
The firm has been picking up the city's restaurant grease for decades and had been serving about 1,000 San Francisco restaurants until a few months ago, when Palla said he lost some customers to enterprising freelancers competing for the increasingly valuable restaurant grease.
Darling formerly charged restaurants a fee but had to switch to free pickups to stay competitive, he said.
Got Grease, a San Francisco company that began picking up used cooking grease 1 1/2 years ago for biodiesel conversion and now serves about 250 restaurants, also will have to eliminate its $25-per-pickup fee"
