The local government launched a pilot program Wednesday to collect all of the used cooking oil from street food vendors in a residential community in Yangpu district.
The program aims to prevent community vendors from dumping their used cooking oil in the sewer system or reselling it to illicit oil collection rings, who can recycle it into illegal and dangerous "gutter oil" that ends up being reused to prepare food.
The local government launched the program in conjunction with the Shanghai Association for Environmental Protection Industry.
The association dispatches workers to collect the waste oil from food vendors in the community each day at 9 am, when the neighborhood breakfast market closes, said Li Wei, the association's vice secretary-general.
"The used oil will be purchased from the vendors for 1.4 yuan ($0.22) for each kilogram by Shanghai Zhongqi Environmental Protection Co - one of the two companies officially authorized to process used oil in the city," said an official surnamed Hong from the community level government.
The pilot program is the first in the city to specifically target street food vendors, and could be expanded to other parts of the city if it works out well, Li said.
Unlike local restaurants, street vendors are not required to pay a fee to dispose of their kitchen waste.
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