Madrid expands on sustainable waste management in 2021

The Spanish capital will get furnished with used cooking oil containers

Today, the Madrid City Council announced that there will be a new addition to the expanding variety and complexity of waste sorting system in the city for the benefit of inching closer towards a proper circular economy and sustainable urban lifestyle.

The authorities plan to place 387 containers for used cooking oil in various locations across the city after having signed a contract with ECO OLEUM S.L., a company that specializes in the collection and processing of this material. This will make the recycling of vegetable oils more wide-spread and accessible to all. In addition, since the oil has economic value, City Hall will be able to generate income from that initiative.

Used cooking oil can be converted into biofuel or animal feed

Collecting used vegetable oils in itself is not new to Madrid but until now there were no defined collecting deposits and there were only some at markets and the so-called puntos limpios – collection sites for domestic waste that falls out of the typical daily trash, for example things like batteries, clothes, furniture, etc.

Even before this new initiative, the collection of used vegetable oils was steadily increasing in Madrid with some 178 600 litres in 2019. That is why the administration has decided that it is high time to make a decisive step towards making this practice more routine and accessible as it also plays an increasing role in the circular economy.

The way the 378 containers will be distributed will be as follows: 200 of them in municipal buildings, 67 in schools, 54 in markets, 40 on the streets and 19 at puntos limpios. Furthermore, 5300 reusable plastic funnels will be handed out to citizens who make a request to own and use them, as these are helpful in the oil disposal process.