The activation of the collection of used edible oils and vegetable oils and fats of domestic origin through the use of roadside collection points bears good fruit. The initiative activated in 2023 by ESA-Com, together with two other local companies (Sive and Bovolone Attiva) operating in the Verona South Basin, in collaboration with the Ecosole company will also continue this year with the aim to consolidate. Overall, there are 59 containers positioned in the central locations of the 27 municipalities in the Verona plain that have joined the initiative. As far as ESA-Com members are concerned, in 2023, 5.84 tons of vegetable oils and fats were collected through ecocosts.
“Naturally”, observes general director Maurizio Barbati, “it is a figure that we aim to grow and observing the trend of the first quarter of 2024 we believe that there will still be growth. We aim to reach at least 10 tons of oils collected in this way within a few years.” The use of containers in the center favors the differentiation of this type of waste, for example frying oil or that present in tuna cans, which is highly polluting. A single liter of oil is enough to contaminate hundreds of thousands of liters of water. If thrown into the sink or bathroom, food oil from frying can cause significant environmental damage because it reaches the sewer system and where there is no purification plant it reaches the ground directly. When the sewerage network has, however, a purification plant, avoiding the environmental impact but creating huge economic damage for citizens, as the cost of waste water treatment increases.
“During 2023”, underlines Barbati, “we witnessed a transfer of tons of waste oil correctly separated by citizens who previously used the ecological island a lot. In fact, in 2022 the tonnes, as far as the ESA-Com Municipalities are concerned, were 26.13 in the eco-centres and only 1.3 tonnes in the containers, last year they were 19.39 in the eco-centres and 5.84 in the eco-centres”. ESA-Com recently positioned two new echo stations in the Municipality of Castagnaro, the last of the entities to join the company. Users will be able to find the containers available in Piazza Dante Alighieri and in Piazza Padre Orfeo Mantovani in the hamlet of Menà. “Unlike what happens in ecological islands where the plastic container containing used vegetable oils is poured out, in eco-islands the latter is closed and entirely disposed of,” concludes Barbati.
