Food waste collectors face threat of violence

'Gutter oil' dealers impede official processors, pay eateries for profit

Blunt refusals, threats and beatings, that's the fate authorized collectors of restaurant waste in Zhengzhou, Henan province, suffer often as unscrupulous gutter oil dealers get the upper hand in the battle for the leftovers from the city's eateries.

Xi Kezhong, general manager of United Elites Bio-energy Co, said his employees face a daily struggle to collect waste from restaurants, despite the fact that his company is the only authorized collector in the city.