JBS’s UCO collection program for biodiesel grew almost 15% in 2023

In Brazil, in order to promote environmental education and encourage the circular economy, an Oleo Amigo program, created by Biopower, a company of JBS producing biodiesel, grew almost 15% in 2023, with the collection of 4.5 million liters of cooking oil. In about eight years of the program’s existence, more than 26 million liters of oil have been collected, which have been transformed into biofuel. With the initiative, more than 650 billion liters of water were preserved, equivalent to 260,000 Olympic swimming pools.

The New Business area of JBS – in which Biopower is – is premised on promoting the circular economy. “We believe that it is increasingly necessary to leave behind the traditional model of extracting, producing, buying and discarding the product. Just one liter of cooking oil is able to contaminate 25,000 liters of water, according to Sabesp. That is why we have adopted a model of reintroduction of waste as a raw material in production chains for obtaining high added energy,” says Alexandre Pereira, commercial director of Biopower.

The Oleo Amigo program currently has centralized activities in Lins, in the interior of São Paulo, and in Curitiba, capital of Paraná, but reaches a total of 87 municipalities in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraná and Santa Catarina, with the potential to promote an environmental awareness for more than 10 million people in these regions. The program, which has the support of local municipalities in Lins and Curitiba, contributes to the use oil not being disposed of incorrectly, as in sinks or on the ground, for example. Instead, become one of the raw materials for obtaining biodiesel. In all, more than 550 commercial establishments have already provided oil for the initiative.