Thread: Solving the problems with cooking oil in Bali

More than 15 cubic meters of used cooking oil is dumped into Bali’s rivers, open lands and waste centers every week.

More worryingly, it is also sold to middlemen who clean the used oil of solids to be resold to warungs and street food stalls.

According to Caritas country representative Thorsten Reckerzugl, the release of used cooking oil into the environment can have disastrous impacts, while consuming used oil is believed to increase the risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Caritas, an international social support foundation, is injecting almost US$1 million in donor funds in an attempt to reduce the volumes of waste oil being sold to food vendors and released into the environment. Caritas is working with hotels and restaurants to recycle the oil at a planned Denpasar plant into biofuel that will then be available for hotel and restaurant generators and shuttle vehicles.

“The disposal of waste cooking oil is very diverse. There is not a structured operation to dispose of cooking oil — there is no government regulation for its disposal.

“Originally, we thought the oil was being poured down sinks and from there into the environment. However, when we started the study we found oil disposed of into the environment, such as in rivers and landfills, accounted for not more than 30 percent.

From research with hotels and restaurants we found 70 percent is reused as cooking oil. It is not toxic, but it is not appropriate for human consumption,” said Reckerzugl.

He explains that the chemical structure of cooking oil undergoes changes during heating and these changes can lead to deadly diseases such as cancer.

“It’s not going to cause diseases if eaten just once, but if people frequently eat foods cooked in old oil it increases the risks and this has been proven,” says Reckerzugl.

Solving Bali?s cooking oil crisis | The Jakarta Post

Only 15 cubic meters a week? I was actually surprised at how low that figure is.

Originally Posted by gilbert de jong

with pertamax just costing 9.000 rups...such an convertesion-set (?) would be a hard sell.

we expats ofcourse always buy the pertamax

I pay every time almost 800.000 Rupiah now It's a little bit like in Europe! But to be honest I wish I could use the cheaper 1

Personally I don't really know anyone who buys the Pertamax outside of a couple and they just use it if they are riding a more expensive bike. Really no need for it if you are just on a 125cc scooter.