What to do with used cooking oil? Companies in Germany and Spain are making it easy for households to get rid of it - and turning it into biodiesel or even bio-jet fuel! Now there's no need to pour it down the drain.
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00:00Crude oil. It still plays a major role in how we get around.
00:07Most vehicles and aircraft are still powered by fossil fuels,
00:11but combustion engines can also run off alternative sources.
00:16Biofuels like grapeseed or palm oil produce fewer carbon emissions,
00:21but growing crops for biofuels uses up valuable farming land.
00:26Recycled cooking oil is a more sustainable option.
00:30In many countries it's already being added to diesel and petrol.
00:34But more used oil could be recycled and used as fuel,
00:38as examples from Germany and Spain show.
00:43Larissa Hartl is taking part in a project run by the company Jeder Tropfen zählt,
00:49which translates as Every Drop Counts.
00:52She lives with her family in southern Germany.
00:55All her used cooking oil now goes into this container.
00:59In the past, she didn't know what to do with it.
01:03Sometimes I'd keep it, thinking I'd use it for salad dressing,
01:06but often it just went off.
01:08Or I forgot about it, or just used to throw it out.
01:13The project was launched in 2018 in some areas of southern Germany.
01:18The containers can be brought to central collecting points,
01:22located outside supermarkets, for example.
01:26Every few months, Larissa Hartl drops off a full container at her local facility.
01:32The machine spits out a clean, empty tub in return.
01:39A local recycling company regularly picks up the used oil
01:43and refills the machines with empty containers.
01:46The firm Lesch got the idea for the dispensing machines from Spain.
01:52Fifty-six towns and communities in southern Germany
01:55are already taking part in the pilot project.
02:01There are more than 615,000 people taking part in the project.
02:06They live in the areas with the collection system.
02:09One hundred and ten of these machines are already in operation
02:13and more are in the pipeline.
02:18It's of advantage to authorities, too.
02:21If cooking oil is poured down the drain, it can clog sewers.
02:25Getting rid of fat bugs formed from solid waste and fat can be very costly.
02:31The district of Telmessing is already counting the benefit, according to its mayor.
02:38It mainly saves us labor costs.
02:41But of course it's about much more than that.
02:44It's about recycling a resource that would otherwise have gone to waste.
02:50Now the old cooking oil can be recycled.
02:59Telmessing-based company Lesch launched the company every drop counts six years ago.
03:05The firm mainly collects used oil from restaurants and canteens, too.
03:09Most is sold to biodiesel producers.
03:14Some 180 metric tons of used cooking oil from private households
03:18were collected in 2024 alone.
03:21That adds up to a lot of biodiesel.
03:28Transesterification turns one litre of used cooking oil into a litre of biodiesel,
03:33a one-to-one ratio.
03:35Everyone's heard of biodiesel.
03:37You can get it in diesel blends at the filling station
03:40and those blends could include more biodiesel.
03:45In Spain, where a lot more used cooking oil is recycled, that's already the case.
03:51A vehicle can even take it to many filling stations and get fuel vouchers in return.
03:58The recycling system operates on a much bigger scale there.
04:02As well as conventional crude oil,
04:04the refinery in Catajena on the Mediterranean coast
04:08processes the oil from private households and restaurants,
04:11as well as olive oil production leftovers.
04:15Over 200 million metric tons of cooking oil are produced globally each year.
04:20More than half goes to private households.
04:22Under 10% is recycled.
04:25But business analysts say that it's a market with growth potential
04:29and more can still be done to tap private households.
04:32Crude oil companies like Repsol have recognised that potential.
04:36At its Catajena plant, it's using cooking oil to produce bio-kerosene, or SAF,
04:42sustainable air fuel, as it's also known.
04:45The demand for SAF is set to rise in Europe.
04:48An EU regulation stipulates that the amount should increase from 2 to 6% by 2030.
04:55The German Aerospace Centre has tested the environmental impact
04:59of a complete switch over to SAF in the aviation sector.
05:07With our measurements, we could show that the use of sustainable air fuel cuts soot emissions.
05:12That reduces the amount of heat-trapping ice crystals in contrails.
05:17And that, in turn, reduces global warming.
05:21So sustainable fuels can play an important role.
05:25But we have to be careful.
05:27In EU states, up to 80% of biofuels are imported, mainly from China, Malaysia and Indonesia.
05:35Most biofuel there is produced from palm oil.
05:38Its production is a major driver of tropical deforestation.
05:42It also devours valuable arable land.
05:47Until we finally replace conventional combustion engines,
05:51biofuels can help to reduce carbon emissions.
05:54But only if we recycle local resources.
05:58Use cooking oil could be a driver of positive change.