UAE: Now recycle your used cooking oil at these new collection machines

Sharjah: Sharjah residents can now recycle used cooking oil by depositing them in bottles provided by a collection machine, Bee’ah Tandeef announced on Monday.

The first used cooking oil collection machine has been installed near the parking lot of Sharjah National Park. It is fully operational and ready to collect deposits from community members. Community members can call 800 TANDEEF (826333) to receive their first used cooking oil collection bottle.

How it works

With every deposit, the machine will also dispense an empty bottle for users to take home. Each bottle can hold up to one litre of used cooking oil, has a wide mouth and an airtight cap to prevent spillage during filling and top up. The bottles also have a lifecycle of five years and are completely recyclable.

Tandeef plans to roll out collection machines in more communities in Sharjah and across the UAE. All the machines will be operational round-the-clock.

Bee’ah Tandeef launched the service for households aiming to reduce the negative impact of typical disposal methods.

In homes, used cooking oil is usually poured down the drain, where it stresses plumbing systems, creates clogs, and ultimately leads to expensive, time-consuming maintenance work for municipalities and sewage treatment companies. Used cooking oil is also disposed of in landfills, where it generates greenhouse gases.

With the new service, Bee’ah Tandeef is working to counter these challenges, while realising value from waste cooking oil.

What happens to the collected oil?

Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO of Bee’ah, said: “We recognised that the typical way to dispose used cooking oil has detrimental effects on the environment, burdens public infrastructure, creates inconvenience for people in their homes and poses a risk to a good quality of life. At the same time, used cooking oil offers the opportunity to sustainably create products like biodiesel. By launching the used cooking oil recycling service, Bee’ah Tandeef is turning these challenges into an opportunity to realise a zero-waste future.”

Once collected, Bee’ah Tandeef will turn the waste cooking oil into biodiesel. In turn, the company will use the biodiesel to fuel its own fleet of waste collection trucks.

‘Circular economy’

Rafael Sanjurjo Lopez, CEO of Tandeef, said: “Through source-segregation and a robust waste collection network, Bee’ah Tandeef has already helped Sharjah realise the highest waste diversion rate away from landfill in the Middle East. With the addition of the used cooking oil recycling service, we want to further contribute to a circular economy, turning waste oil into biodiesel and new, sustainable products.”