“North Carolina has specific laws against stealing waste cooking oil”
TRUE! It is unlawful to take waste kitchen grease when containers are labeled indicating unauthorized removal is prohibited. Also illegal: placing fraudulent ownership labels on grease containers.
This sounds absurd until you realize used cooking oil became valuable. With the rise of biodiesel, that nasty grease behind restaurants suddenly had real monetary value. Grease theft became an actual problem. Thieves would pull up to restaurant dumpsters at night and siphon off the used fryer oil worth several dollars per gallon. Restaurants that had contracts with legitimate recyclers were losing money. North Carolina responded with specific legislation criminalizing grease theft.
Where the story gets it wrong
Many people find this law amusing, assuming it's about restaurant garbage. In reality, waste cooking oil is a valuable commodity used to produce biodiesel, and grease theft became a significant problem as demand grew — prompting North Carolina to pass specific legislation targeting the theft directly.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-79.2 — Waste kitchen grease; unlawful acts and penalties: It is unlawful for any person to (1) take and carry away, or aid in taking or carrying away, any waste kitchen grease container or the waste kitchen grease contained therein, which container bears a notice that unauthorized removal is prohibited, without written consent of the owner; (2) intentionally contaminate or purposely damage any waste kitchen grease container or grease therein; or (3) place a label on a waste kitchen grease container knowing that it is owned by another person in order to claim ownership of the container.
- Current status
- Actively Enforced
- Enacted
- June 25, 2012
- Penalty
- Class 1 misdemeanor (lower values); Class H felony (higher values or repeat offenses)