The association also warns that, currently, less than 4% of this resource's potential is being used.

In a statement, Zero warned that Portugal is wasting a “resource with environmental, economic and energy value at an unstable international time,” highlighting the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

Sustainable raw material

Used cooking oils are the most sustainable raw material for producing biofuels, which can replace the import of fossil fuels for road, sea, and air transport, a practice Zero classifies as “an irresponsibility that the country cannot accept”.

According to the association, municipal collection of used cooking oil in the domestic sector represents less than 4% of the estimated potential.

“It is a serious failure of public policy, a loss of valuable raw material and yet another avoidable dependency,” it warned.

Producing million of litres of biofuel

If this domestic potential is harnessed, Zero estimates that Portugal could produce around 25 to 30 million litres of biofuel per year, 25 to 30 times more than it currently produces.

These oils “should not be poured down the sink, toilet or sewer,” because this can increase problems in drainage and wastewater treatment systems and worsen water pollution, generating avoidable costs for public services, Zero highlighted in the statement.

Business capacity

Considering that Portugal already has the industrial and business capacity to valorise this resource, ZERO proposed that people “store used cooking oil in sealed plastics and deliver it to oil collection points,” also asking that “municipalities urgently strengthen the network of oil collection points” and that the country treat used cooking oil as a “priority flow of circular economy and material security.”

The most recent data obtained by the non-governmental organisation (NGO), together with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), shows that in Portugal, "between 43,000 and 65,000 tons of used cooking oil are generated per year", of which about 62% originate from the domestic sector.