What Is NOT Used Cooking Oil?

Fresh cooking oil that has never been used for cooking is not UCO. Even if it is edible oil, it is not a waste cooking oil feedstock simply because it exists in a container or is available for disposal.

Oil that remains unused after purchase, oil that has expired in storage, or oil that is no longer wanted by the owner is not automatically UCO. Expired oil is still not UCO unless it was genuinely used in food preparation and meets the criteria of post-use cooking oil.

Any mixing of used cooking oil with virgin oil, fresh oil, surplus oil, or expired oil is prohibited. This destroys the integrity of the material, creates traceability failure, and may amount to deliberate misdeclaration.

Used cooking oil mixed with water is not acceptable. Water addition may be accidental or deliberate, but either way it creates quality failure, handling problems, settlement issues, and fraud risk. Deliberate dilution to increase weight or volume is a serious integrity breach.

Yellow grease, grease-trap waste, interceptor grease, drain-recovered fats, and similar recovered oily waste are not the same as genuine used cooking oil from food preparation. These materials often contain high moisture, food solids, sludge, sewer contamination, detergents, and other impurities. They must not be declared or sold as UCO.

Gutter oil, sewer-recovered oil, drain-skimmed grease, and any illegally recovered or reprocessed waste oil are strictly prohibited. This material is unsafe, unethical, unlawful, and wholly unacceptable to Astra Sage.

Palm kernel oil, palm oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, animal fat, and similar oils or fats are not UCO unless they were actually used in cooking or food preparation and became genuine post-use cooking oil. Raw or virgin feedstocks, however common they may be, must not be represented as UCO.

Tallow, rendered animal fat, lard, and similar fats are not UCO unless they were genuinely used in cooking or food preparation for human food and became post-use cooking fat. Raw, fresh, or industrially rendered fats are not the same as used cooking oil.

Mineral oil, lubricating oil, hydraulic oil, gear oil, compressor oil, and machine oils are industrial fluids, not food-derived waste oils. They are completely outside the UCO category and must never be mixed with or presented as cooking oil.

Any oil contaminated with petrochemicals, degreasers, solvents, detergents, caustic chemicals, sanitizers, cleaning agents, or other non-food substances is automatically rejected. These materials create handling risk, safety risk, and total loss of eligibility as UCO.

Used cooking oil containing excessive food scraps, bones, plastic, paper, sludge, sediment, ash, cloth, or foreign matter is not acceptable in that condition. Astra Sage may reject material that is excessively contaminated, poorly stored, or operationally unsafe to handle.

Oil offered without clear proof that it was actually used to cook or prepare food cannot be accepted as UCO. Traceability matters. If origin, use history, or chain of custody cannot be explained, the material does not qualify.