Beijing may use cameras to monitor gutter oil

Beijing may install more than 60,000 electronic cameras to monitor restaurants’ "gutter oil", or recycles kitchen oil, to prevent it from being re-used as cooking oil, Beijing Times reported Tuesday.

The cameras will be installed at oil-water separators or oil separation tanks, forming a real-time surveillance network to cover more than 60,000 restaurants in the city. It will let the city’s watchdog know if a restaurant gives all its used cooking oil to qualified recyclers.

With the real-time surveillance equipment, it will be very difficult for the restaurants to sell its “gutter oil” to illegal dealers.

According to preliminary statistics, there are more than 62,000 restaurants in Beijing discharging about 240 tons of used oil a day. The surveillance system will cost the city government about 30 million yuan.