The Balearic Islands are turning industrial waste into a new source of raw materials. In 2025, the islands reused the 3,308 tons of used industrial oil generated during the year, transforming it into new regenerated lubricants and industrial fuel, which were then reintroduced into the production cycle. The process also prevented the emission of 2,093 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The data, provided by the Spanish System for the Management of Used Industrial Oils (Sigaus), reflect the scope of a recovery chain that operates on the ground and must face a particular characteristic of this waste: its generation is highly dispersed. In 2025, the waste oil came from 1,864 facilities spread across the islands, and Sigaus’s associated waste management companies carried out nearly 5,700 collection operations in 63 municipalities.
The final result was 3,285 net tons of waste oil, all recovered. 75% was sent for regeneration, while the rest was used to produce BIA fuel, a low-sulfur industrial fuel used in furnaces and boilers. Regeneration allows the oil’s components to be recovered and used as raw materials for manufacturing new lubricants. From the quantities recovered in the Balearic Islands, approximately 1,500 tons of regenerated lubricant and 700 tons of industrial oil have been obtained. The production of these resources using conventional methods would have required approximately 800,000 barrels of crude oil, according to Sigaus.
Behind these figures is a collection network that must be extended far beyond the main industrial centers. Although garages account for 54 percent of the facilities that generate these wastes and industrial facilities an additional 13 percent, used oil also comes from sectors as diverse as retail, the hospitality industry, transportation, and agriculture.
The main challenges facing the system
This dispersion makes logistics one of the system’s main challenges. It is not enough to have plants capable of processing the waste: it must be collected where it is generated. In the Balearic Islands, this also involves covering rural areas, mountainous regions, and areas far from the main centers of activity. In 2025 alone, 336 tons were collected in rural areas and another 445 tons in mountainous regions.
Once collected, the oil undergoes various treatment processes to remove impurities and recover both its material components and its energy content. The goal is for what initially arrives as a waste product to return to the market as a new raw material or as energy. “The Balearic Islands have been demonstrating for two decades that it is possible to ensure that used industrial oil is collected where it is generated and reintroduced into the production cycle,” said Eduardo de Lecea, general director of Sigaus.
The 2025 assessment therefore points to a two-pronged approach: reducing the environmental impact of potentially contaminating waste and, at the same time, avoiding the consumption of virgin resources. On an island, where logistics and the availability of raw materials add complexity to any industrial supply chain, the recovery of used oil also becomes a way to close the production cycle.