Fundación Cepsa and the Cabildo de Tenerife launch an educational project to collect used household oil

• It will be implemented in eight primary schools in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the collaboration of the Ataretaco Foundation

Fundación Cepsa and the Cabildo de Tenerife, through the Natural Environment, Sustainability and Safety and Emergencies area, have launched a project to collect used cooking oil in various primary schools located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, after reaching a collaboration agreement with the Canary Islands Foundation for the Integral Training and Social and Labor Insertion of People in a Situation of Social Exclusion or at Risk of Social Exclusion (Fundación Ataretaco).

The purpose of this initiative is to raise awareness and teach students about the need to cooperate in resolving the problems caused by waste generation and, specifically, about incorrect disposal of household oil.

The Councilor for the Natural Environment, Sustainability, Safety, and Emergencies, Blanca Pérez, stated that the agreement aims to "foster attitudes of respect for the environment, promote the development of a sense of responsibility, and intervene in the problem of household waste, as well as to make students aware of the environmental repercussions of unregulated waste and the need for proper sustainable management. The project includes a system to collect used cooking oil for later reuse as a biofuel."

For her part, the head of Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado, stressed the importance of recycling household oil "to stop it from polluting our seas. What better way to achieve this than by involving schools, through their students. We want children to be agents of change, to become committed and responsible and to encourage their families and neighbors to do the same, as part of a necessary collective change to solve a problem that concerns us all."

The educational initiative will be carried out over the current school year in eight primary schools located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. With the title "Oil set aside is a resource well-used," it will try to instill in the students the fact that 1 liter of oil can contaminate 1,000 liters of water and that is why it is so important to separate it so that it can later be processed to manufacture products such as candles, soaps, or fuels that generate less CO₂.

The initiative includes environmental education and awareness-raising activities in the selected educational centers, with informational activities on how and why to recycle used cooking oil. It will also train awareness-raising agents to act as motivational and awareness-raising vehicles in educational centers for sustainable management of household waste oil.

The educational campaign includes the installation in schools of the necessary containers to collect used domestic oil and the distribution of funnels for household collection. Fundación Ataretaco will also be responsible for monitoring and supporting the schools throughout the project, ensuring that the awareness-raising agents complete the designated actions, such as creating posters, giving talks, producing a video and supervising the recycling containers. A system will also be set up to collect the oil accumulated in the containers for subsequent reuse as a biofuel.