First ton of waste cooking oil collected from households in Croatia

The first ton of waste cooking oil from households has been collected in Croatia and it will be recycled, INA – oil and gas company that started the project, has announced.

In October last year, INA offered a new “green service” to its customers – to collect and dispose of used cooking oil at one of INA’s 30 retail locations in central Croatia. The company provided free funnels for interested customers.

Six months after the pilot project was launched, the first ton of waste oils is collected – the highest quantity has been delivered by the citizens of Zagreb municipalities Trešnjevka (140 tons) and Maksimir (100 tons), while Čakovec, in northern Croatia, also collected 100 tons.

Households in Croatia generate around 9 million liters of used cooking oil per year or more than two liters per capita. Unlike restaurants, Croatian households have no legal obligation to collect used cooking oils.

Compared with other EU countries, Croatia is lagging behind in the collection of waste cooking oil. In Belgium and Austria, for example, households recycle more than 50 percent of the cooking oils.

The removal of the containers from INA`s retail locations is carried out by the Agroproteinka, a company that started collecting waste oil in 2008. So far it has transported oil to its plants for physical pretreatment and then sold purified oil on the EU market.

Recycled waste cooking oil can be used for production of biofuels, soaps, detergents and synthetic rubber.