7 News Belize

Big Bucks For Burnt Oil
posted (October 18, 2012)
In Belize City there are very many hustles - but we met one man whose game is buying up all the burnt cooking oil he can find. He buys big from Chinese eateries and we found out why.

Jules Vasquez reporting
In the cantaloupe coloured evening light most people are winding down - but we found this 73 year old winding up.

We met Julio Florian in front of Chon Saan Palace fastening these buckets of burnt cooking oil unto his bicycle.

Now, who wants burnt cooking oil?:

Julio Florian, "El Pajarito" - Buys burnt oil
"This is for making gasoline for the gas station my sister has. I buy for $15 a gallon; this is for diesel and gasoline. From this I can get 4 gallons of gasoline and diesel."

The strange alchemy that must be used to covert this grimy oil into fuel got lost in translation - but El Pajarito would hardly, know, he's just the run-man - a post he fills quite literally as he dashed down the street unimpeded by the great weight of the buckets of oil sloshing about.

And if you're wondering where he gets all this energy, he told us he likes all kinds of girls.

Chon Saan Management says Mennonite buyers used to pay them five dollars per bucket for the burnt oil, but this man pays them fifteen.

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