Valencia’s towns and neighbourhoods are going to get 300 new oil-recycling bins, as the government aims to make it easier for people to dispose of polluting household oils. Daniel Hazelhoff reports…
The Valencian Ayuntamiento has signed a contract worth around €300,000 with recycling-bin company CERVIC to install the 300 containers in convenient places for people to dump their used cooking oil.
Currently, Valencia has 95 oil-recycling containers, which collected a reported 29.8 tons (37,250 litres) of household oil last year. However, these bins are located in municipal buildings, which are not ideal in terms of accessibility.
Studies show that a single litre of oil can contaminate 40,000 litres of water, according to the Ayuntamiento.
Sergi Campillo, Valencia’s Vice Mayor and Councilor of Urban Ecology, described household oil as a “highly polluting product,” adding that the scope for improvement in used-oil collection is “massive.”
“Until now we’ve had many containers in public buildings, but this limited the hours people could use them,” Campillo said. “Civilians and neighbours have asked us to install oil disposal containers on the streets.”
Making Valencia a greener city
Campillo noted that oil should not be put down household drains. It is “very difficult to remove oil through the water purification process.” Studies show that a single litre of oil can contaminate 40,000 litres of water, according to the Ayuntamiento.
Once the oil is in the bins, non-profit organisations will be in charge of recycling it, he said. This project runs parallel with other initiatives to make Valencia a greener and more sustainable city.
The new metal containers will be theft-and-vandalism proof. People will be able to deposit oil in plastic bottles of up to 5 litres.
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