THE Chinese Community Association of the Bahamas has refuted "distorted" and "disturbing" videos circulating on social media and picked up by a local TV news station accusing some Chinese restaurants of allegedly using waste oil.

The association said the report, which aired on TV last week, "damaged" the public's perception of the Chinese-Bahamian community and associated businesses. The group added such commentary breeds contempt and encourages prejudice. The statement highlighted the impact Chinese-Bahamian businesses have had in inner-city communities over the years, including providing employment in less fortunate areas.

The association added that as Bahamians, they will do "all that is within our legal rights to ensure that our good names and the confidence of our fellow Bahamians is fully restored."

In a statement released yesterday, the association said many Chinese businesses, including one that was featured in an Eye Witness News report, have been under contract with Bahamas Waste Limited's biodiesel division to collect used oil from their grease pits as a part of a "revolutionary eco-friendly" programme which recycles waste oil into biodiesel for the past two years.

The statement came after the TV report was aired, questioning whether local Chinese restaurants were using waste oil, colloquially known as "gutter oil." This came after certain videos were circulated on Facebook. "Gutter oil" is an illicit cooking oil that has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, grease traps, slaughterhouse waste and sewerage from sewer drains.

Yesterday, the association said each of the restaurants featured in recent videos are equipped with both cesspits and grease pits and refuted any suggestion that anything untoward was taking place.

"All waste and used oil from these restaurants is disposed into the grease pits. At no point do the content of the cesspits and grease pits at any of these premises come together and mix in any way.

"…None of the establishments reuse oil from the grease pits and they all have complied fully with all health and safety requirements and inspections needed in order to possess valid restaurant business licences.

"We are certain that this unfortunate misunderstanding has now been fully explained and will now be put to rest. As stated, many of us are second and third generation Bahamians, who have only known the Bahamas as home. We love our country deeply.

". . . We are deeply hurt and offended by the repeated scurrilous, unfounded accusations which have been targeted at our community and aired by a certain television news agency and across social media. . . such videos are incredibly harmful not only to our establishments but they also breed contempt and encourage prejudice - which is not the practice of the Christian nation we grew up in and call home.

"We have invested hard work and life savings for generations into businesses that have provided not only much needed resources but employment for persons throughout the less fortunate areas - areas that are now the focus of government incentives to do what we in the Bahamian-Chinese community have been doing for two and three lifetimes without any encouragement.

"At a time when our country is facing great uncertainties, we should not be tearing each other apart, but standing together to face the challenges ahead as a united people - just as our nation's pledge and motto confirms and reaffirms."

The group also forwarded a letter from Bahamas Waste Limited addressed to the Ministry of Health on June 21, which said Mikes Chinese Restaurant has been a part of its recycling programme for two years now.

"We collect (their) used cooking oil on a weekly basis," the letter written by the manager of the company's bio-diesel facility wrote. "They are amongst one of the few Chinese restaurants that actually got involved in the recycling of the oil. We have had mechanical issues with our waste truck which led to the waste oil building up. For the prevention of the waste oil draining into the roads, it was scooped up and disposed of into the trash. I have on file dates of collection from Mikes if needed to be seen."