The first waste collection vehicle using cooking oil as fuel is already at work in the streets of Thessaloniki.

The dustbin lorry runs on biofuel derived from frying oil collected from restaurants as part of the city’s Biofuels-2G project, run in collaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the National Centre for Research and Technology and the EU’s Life+Biofuels-2G project.

The project kicked off in May 2010, with the collection of waste cooking oil from 11 restaurants, which have by now become 23. The restaurant network collected a total of 2,250 litres of cooking oil providing 2,150 litres of biofuel to power the first dustbin lorry, which was presented at the International Conference on Biofuels for the Sustainable Development of Southern Europe, held in Thessaloniki on November 19-20.

• Recycle @ Home in Maroussi

The Municipality of Maroussi in Attica is launching its Recycle@Home project, an initiative to promote the use of home recyclers for its residents.

The local authority presented the innovative recycling system of the EU LIFE - Recycling at Home project, on November 28, 2012, and will be installed for free at a number of Maroussi homes, following an application process. The project is run by the Maroussi local council, in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens.