Once surreptitiously dumped down drains in the dead of night, Asia’s used cooking oil is fast becoming one of the most sought-after commodities in Europe - as a feedstock for biodiesel.

Aggressive green energy targets in the European Union that were bolstered further this year are pushing fuel makers to churn out biodiesel containing recycled cooking oils and fats, phasing out the use of fresh vegetable oils in the process by 2030.

That has unleashed a wave of demand for used oil from places such as China and Southeast Asia, where cooking oils are widely used to prepare everything from stir-frys to piping hot samosas.

Amizuri Abdullah, who picks up used oil from restaurants, fast food outlets and food factories for Malaysian waste oil collection firm FatHopes Energy, said his job had been getting markedly busier.

“When I first joined the company a year ago, there were about 15 or 16 stops to make in a day. Now there can be as many as 25, and more people are asking about it,” said Amizuri, who wears bright blue protective gloves to pump used oil into a tank on the back of his truck on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

The oil is unloaded at a collection center where it is filtered to remove food scraps like chicken bones and skin, before being processed to reduce contamination. It is then transferred into tankers for export to Europe.

FatHopes Chief Executive Vinesh Sinha said the company’s exports of waste-based feedstock to European oil majors had grown 40 percent in the last three years, forecasting a threefold increase in Europe’s demand for such feedstock by 2030.

Used cooking oil makes up a good chunk of what the company collects from thousands of sites across Southeast Asia, but it also buys coffee grinds, animal fats and palm oil mill waste.

“My clients are struggling to find feedstock in anticipation of the EU policy,” he said.