“What’s That Smell, Darling?”
If you've caught a whiff of that unmistakable rotten, animal-like stench wafting through Bastrop County then unfortunately you’ve experienced the pollution emitting from Darling Ingredients rendering facility.
Darling Ingredients Inc. is a large publicly traded corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas, with over 270 facilities and more than 14,000 employees worldwide. The company processes animal by-products, used cooking oil, and other waste materials from the food industry into various products including animal feed, pet food ingredients, and biofuels. Their Bastrop County facility, located at 264 FM2336, Bastrop, TX 78602, processes poultry by-products and used cooking oil.
The Bastrop facility has been operating since the late 1980s, originally established when Griffin Industries acquired a local rendering company in 1987. Griffin Industries operated the plant for decades until Darling Ingredients acquired the company in 2020. Today the facility employs approximately 80 people.
Records show complaints about foul odors from the plant going back at least 20 years, with hundreds of complaints filed in recent years alone. Since 2023, local residents agree that the foul smell has become stronger and more frequent - even occurring on a daily basis for many residents.
Darling Ingredients pollution is in violation of the public nuisance rule listed in 30 Texas Administrative Code 101.4. Additionally, the plant illegally emits the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide and has been measured emitting over 5 times the legal amount permitted by 30 Texas Administrative Code Section 112.31.
In 2025, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued Darling Ingredients a fine of $39,375 for repeated air permit violations and were ordered to fix the odor issues. As of October 2025, residents have not seen a decrease in the odor.