T&E report says China will run out of waste oil due to EU and US demand

In Belgium, China, will soon run out of waste oil, as demand from Europe and the US outstrips supply, a new Transport & Environment (T&E) study shows. Stratas Advisors’ research, on behalf of T&E, looks at the collection capacity of the world’s leading UCO producers and finds that China already exports more than half its UCO to be used in European and US cars and trucks. That is before airlines are set to triple demand for UCO by 2030 to meet ‘sustainable’ aviation targets. T&E calls for curbs to unsustainable and dubious imports of UCO.

Europe burns through 130,000 barrels of used cooking oil a day – 8 times more than it collects. Following the introduction of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the US now consumes 40,000 barrels a day. To fill the gap, both are importing more and more UCO from China, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia. But as airlines start to get in on the act, demand is outstripping what can be sustainably collected.