The Technological Institute of Costa Rica has created a strategy that has already been put into practice by some organizations and restaurants two of which are Restaurante Institucional (Institutional Restaurant) and Residencias Estudiantes (Student Communities). They separate the used oil, put it in containers and hand it over to an authorized agent sent by the Ministry of Health.
“A misuse of cooking oil has a negative impact on rivers, allowing that wastewater is not treated properly in our country since water goes to a treatment plant and the chemistry of household oils makes the purification procedure more complex and expensive” – an environmental specialist says.
Alina Rodriguez, environmental specialist of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica expressed concern about this issue and explained why it is not correct to throw the used oil in the sink.
“Unfortunately, the used oil ends up in the rivers and causes damages that lead to a reduction of the amount of oxygen in these freshwater sources which jeopardizes the habitat of many fish species” – she says.
To summarize; here a list of the benefits of recycling domestic oil:
- Elimination of a water highly polluting residue
- Water re-use
- It prevents the growth of pathogen micro-organisms
- It’s cost-effective for the water waste treatment companies which won’t have to spend a lot of money on the water purification process
- It prevents sanitation facilities from degrading rapidly
- Reduction of energy dependency
Rodriguez also added that this initiative seeks to diminish the use of raw material and improve the way residues are being recycled. 3639 liters of used cooking oil have been collected so far, which is equivalent to the production of 3165 liters of biodiesel.