- The educational project has the collaboration of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council and the Ataretaco Foundation
- It takes place in eight primary schools in the capital of Tenerife
The Minister of Natural Environment, Sustainability, Safety, and Emergencies, Blanca Pérez, the head of the Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado, and the President of the Ataretaco Foundation, Pedro Armas, attended the presentation of the programme today at the Tíncer Infant and Primary Teaching School, in an event in which the island Director of Waste Management, Alejandro Molowny, and the councilors of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, Carlos Tarife and Javier Rivero, as well as the head CEIP Tíncer, Laura Nazco, were also present.
During the meeting, the head of Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado, explained that "the collaboration we have with the Cabildo of Tenerife and the Ataretaco Foundation is another example of Fundación Cepsa's commitment to sustainability and environmental education." The initiative allows us to raise awareness and sensitize both students and their families, as well as collaborating in solving the problems derived from the generation of this waste with the aim of ensuring proper management of oil in households."
Machado has pointed out that "this project facilitates the integration of the educational community in the delivery process of domestic cooking oil and its subsequent valorization." The practical aspect of this agreement is also very interesting, as the oil collected in the eight participating schools will be converted into biofuels through the management of Fundación Ataretaco, which in turn contributes to the social and labor insertion project of this foundation.
On her part, the Minister of Natural Environment, Sustainability, Safety, and Emergencies, Blanca Pérez, has stated that the objective is "to intervene in the problem of household waste, as well as to raise awareness among students about the environmental impact of uncontrolled spills and the need for proper sustainable management." And there is an important part which is the collection system for used cooking oil allows for its subsequent reuse as a biofuel. That is, waste becomes a resource, and that is something we must promote among everyone.
The educational campaign, started in the current school year in eight primary schools in the capital of Tenerife, has the "Oil separated, resource used” slogan, and aims to instill in students the fact that 1 liter of oil can pollute 1,000 liters of water and, that is why it is so important to separate it and later process it to obtain products such as candles, soaps, or biofuels that generate less CO2.
The campaign includes environmental education and awareness-raising activities in the selected educational centers, with informative actions on how and why to recycle used cooking oil, as well as how to do so. Additionally, in each educational center, a group of awareness-raising agents will be trained to act as motivations for sustainable management of household oil.
The educational campaign includes the installation in the eight schools of the necessary containers for the collection of used domestic oil, as well as the delivery of funnels that children take to their homes to facilitate oil recycling. Additionally, the Ataretaco Foundation will carry out monitoring activities and join the centers throughout the project, ensuring that the awareness-raising agents complete the designated actions, such as creating posters, giving informative talks and raising awareness for students, producing a video, as well as supervising the containers. A system has been set up to collect the oil accumulated in the containers for subsequent reuse as a biofuel.
