393 million pounds. That is how much used cooking oil RTI recycled in 2025 alone. A company record. Nearly all of it was converted into renewable diesel, biodiesel, or sustainable aviation fuel.
To put that in perspective, that is roughly 49 million gallons of used cooking oil moved through a single company's pipeline in 12 months.
The Machine Behind the Number
RTI is not a scrappy grease hauler with a pump truck and a handshake. They operate 41 depots across the US, employ over 1,200 people, and serve more than 45,000 foodservice operators including McDonald's, Shake Shack, Sheetz, Kwik Trip, and Kroger. They delivered almost 720 million pounds of fresh cooking oil to those same customers last year. Their model is closed-loop: deliver the fresh oil, collect the used oil, recycle it into fuel. End to end.
Their renewable energy partners, including Phillips 66, handle the conversion side. RTI handles the logistics. And the logistics alone at that scale are staggering.
What This Means for Independent Collectors
Here is the part that matters if you are running a collection operation.
RTI's 393 million pounds did not come from thin air. It came from restaurants. The same restaurants in your territory. The same fryers, the same grease traps, the same back-of-house dumpster pads you service every week.
That volume proves one thing beyond any doubt: the demand for UCO is not slowing down. The downstream market is hungry. Renewable diesel producers need feedstock. SAF blenders need feedstock. Biodiesel plants need feedstock. And the US restaurant industry keeps generating it.
If a single company can move 393 million pounds in a year, the total addressable volume across the country is massive. And a meaningful share of that volume is still collected by independent operators, regional haulers, and mid-size companies that know their routes better than anyone.
The Real Takeaway
It is easy to look at a number like 393 million pounds and feel small. RTI has national infrastructure, enterprise contracts, and decades of institutional relationships.
But that is not the point.
The point is that the UCO market is enormous and growing. Every pound RTI collects validates the value of the product you are hauling. Every gallon they convert into renewable fuel proves that used cooking oil is not waste. It is a commodity. It has a buyer. It has a purpose.
If you are an independent collector doing 50,000 pounds a month, you are in the same supply chain as RTI. You are feeding the same downstream demand. The difference is scale, not relevance.
The Opportunity Is Still Wide Open
RTI serves 45,000 accounts. There are over one million foodservice locations in the United States. That means there are hundreds of thousands of restaurants, hotels, convenience stores, and grocery delis that are not locked into a national provider. Many of them are underserved. Many of them are paying too much or getting picked up too infrequently. Many of them do not even have a UCO collection agreement in place.
That is your market.
RTI's record year is not a warning. It is a signal. The renewable fuel industry is scaling. Feedstock demand is climbing. And the collectors who build tight routes, maintain reliable service, and treat UCO like the valuable commodity it is will keep winning.
393 million pounds is proof that this industry is real. Now go get your share.
