How to power a plane with leftover Chinese hot pot

Workers collect samples of waste oil from a tanker truck at the Sichuan Jinshang Environmental Technology facility in Chengdu, China, on Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. The perfect Sichuan hot pot produces about 12,000 tons of waste oil each month in the Chinese city of Chengdu alone. So in 2016, a startup began exporting some of that leftover restaurant grease to Europe and Singapore, where it gets recycled into fuel pure enough to fly airplanes. — Bloomberg

There’s a ritual involved in creating the perfect Sichuan hot pot and it involves fat – lots of it. Diners first immerse slivers of meat in a spicy soup rich in molten animal tallow, then dip each morsel in a plate of vegetable oil, before finally devouring it. It’s a rich delicacy, one that produces about 12,000 tons of waste oil each month in the Chinese city of Chengdu alone.

So in 2016, a startup began exporting some of that leftover restaurant grease to Europe and Singapore, where it gets recycled into fuel pure enough to fly airplanes.