Repsol introduces UCO collection at 134 service stations in Madrid, Spain

Photo: Repsol

Repsol has set up 134 collection points for used cooking oil (UCO) at its service stations in the autonomous region of Madrid in Spain.

This is a new service that the company offers to its customers to facilitate the sustainable management of this domestic waste.

The company is promoting the circular economy by using this collected UCO as a raw material to produce renewable fuels, with zero net-CO2 emissions.

This initiative is carried out in collaboration with the regional government in Madrid.

The regional minister for the environment, housing and agriculture, Paloma Martín, presented the project April 14 together with the executive managing director of Repsol’s client business, Valero Marín, at one of the company’s service stations in Las Rozas, 20 kilometers north of the Spanish capital.

Marín said that “this new service reinforces our bond with our customers that are at the center of our activity. We hope that they will welcome this initiative with the same enthusiasm with which we are implementing it. It also underlines our commitment to the circular economy and the decarbonization of transport, an effort that we want to make our customers part of.”

Martín stressed that “it is important to remember that one liter of this liquid can contaminate 1,000 liters of water. The recycling of this product is also fundamental to avoid damage to pipes since, in most cases, it is disposed of in the sink.”

For the UCO collection, customers can use plastic bottles of at least one liter, and deposit it at any of the 134 Repsol service stations that currently have this service.

In the coming weeks, this service will be expanded to 150 collection points.

Users of the Waylet application will also be able to benefit from a discount of 0.30 euros per liter of UCO delivered at the points available in the Madrid region.

The discount can be applied for the next refueling or to purchase other products at the company’s more than 3,300 service stations in Spain.

The collection of UCO at Repsol service stations in the Madrid region is one of the actions focused on the circular economy that have been included in the agreement that both entities have recently signed to promote the energy transition in the region.

Several lines of collaboration have been established, including the promotion of the use of renewable energies in public facilities and the promotion and development of self-consumption models for citizens, through solar and energy communities.

Another axis will be the achievement of sustainable and inclusive mobility in the region, with the adoption of multiple sustainable solutions, such as renewable fuels, electric mobility and renewable hydrogen.

Last August, Repsol signed an agreement with the Regional Transport Consortium in Madrid to promote the adoption of these sustainable solutions among the operators that form part of the public network it manages.

In addition, the regional government has implemented various environmental-policy instruments in recent years, including the Sustainable Waste Management Strategy of the Autonomous Region of Madrid, the Energy Plan of the Autonomous Region of Madrid Horizon 2020 and the Air Quality and Climate Change Strategy 2013-2020 (Plan Azul+).

Repsol is committed to becoming a net-zero emissions company by 2050 and it is transforming its industrial complexes into multi-energy hubs that manufacture products with a low-, zero- or even a negative-carbon footprint as one of the pillars of its strategy.

The circular economy is a key tool for achieving these objectives, and renewable fuels and circular materials are just two examples of the products already being manufactured at the company’s industrial complexes using alternative raw materials.

In October 2021, the A Coruña refinery processed 500 tons of used cooking oil for the first time to make renewable diesel.

This year, Repsol will start operations at the first advanced biofuels plant in the Iberian Peninsula that will annually manufacture 250,000 tons from waste, adding to the 750,000 tons that the company currently produces.

Repsol has set a target of producing 1.3 million tons of renewable fuels by 2025 and 2 million tons by 2030.