Over 15 tonnes of used cooking oil dispatched from Madurai to Telangana for bio-fuel production

The oil was collected from 222 shops in the city that used more than 40 litres of oil a day

District Collector T.G. Vinay flagged off a tanker lorry carrying around 15.5 tonnes of used cooking oil collected by the Food Safety Department under the Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) scheme, an initiative of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), from the Collectorate, here on Friday. The collected oil was dispatched to a FSSAI-recognised plant based in Telangana for the production of bio-fuel.

The RUCO initiative, which was launched in Madurai in October last year, aims to prevent repeated use of cooking oil and to have it converted into bio-fuel.

Designated Officer for Food Safety S. Somasundaram said that used oil was collected from 222 shops in the city, which used more than 40 litres of oil every day. A team of 19 food safety officers were involved in the collection of the oil for the last two months.

“This is just the initial phase in the implementation of the RUCO scheme. Through regular awareness programmes, we are aiming to reach a target of collecting around 300 tonnes of used oil from Madurai,” said Mr. Somasundaram. The establishments were paid ₹25 for each litre of cooking oil. For the total collected oil, about ₹3.89 lakh had been paid to the shops.