Wind River Environmental has acquired the remaining grease trap service operations of Darling Ingredients, which ran under the DAR PRO Solutions brand. The deal was announced October 30.
The scope is narrow. Only grease trap services changed hands.
How we got here
This is the second sale of DAR PRO trap assets this year. In May, Houston-based Waste Resource Management (WRM) signed a deal for most of DAR PRO's trap grease business, which added 13 metro markets to WRM's footprint. WRM closed that deal in July. Wind River is buying what was left.
Who's buying
Wind River is one of the largest names in non-hazardous liquid waste. It covers septic pumping, grease trap maintenance, and wastewater treatment. The company operates in 26 states, employs more than 1,300 people, and has closed more than 100 acquisitions.
The DAR PRO deal adds commercial service capacity in Ohio and grows Wind River's existing customer base in the Mid-Atlantic. CEO Dave Parry described it as part of a broader push to expand across the Midwest in commercial wastewater services. Former DAR PRO trap customers now have access to Wind River's wider set of services.
Two streams, two different businesses
Grease trap waste and used cooking oil (UCO) both come out of restaurant kitchens, but they are separate businesses.
Trap waste is FOG (fats, oils, and grease) captured in plumbing before it reaches the sewer. Servicing it is a compliance job, closer to wastewater management than to commodities. Fryer oil, sold as yellow grease, is a commodity feedstock bought by biodiesel, renewable diesel, and SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) producers.
What Darling keeps
Darling is selling its trap service business and nothing else. Rendering, UCO collection, and the rest of the company stay in place. According to the announcement, DAR PRO Solutions will keep collecting used cooking oil from its existing customers under the same brand, with no changes to those operations.
With grease traps sold, DAR PRO Solutions can now focus solely on fryer oil recycling and rendering, its cash cows.
