Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - In an effort to create environmental awareness, especially among young people, and to promote the proper use of sewers, Seapal Vallarta has just launched a campaign to collect used cooking oil.

The campaign was officially launched by a delegation in Colonia Las Palmas before hundreds of students in the General Secondary School No. 55 Ignacio Luis Vallarta. Director Humberto Muñoz Vargas formally endorsed the work of José de Jesús Barraza Palomera, an engineer recently graduated from the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Vallarta, who has set a goal to reduce and eventually eliminate the ecological risk posed by used cooking oils.

With the firm backing of the Principal, Marco Antonio Moreno Marti; Biology Professor, Claudia Ivonne Rodríguez Salgado, and the director of Seapal, the young engineer explained the objectives and motives of the campaign.

Five secondary school students started the meeting with a presentation on the harmful effects of cooking oil when thrown into water sources: "...one liter of oil pollutes one thousand liters of water, and it is extremely difficult to repair the damage."

Humberto Muñoz elaborated on the issue and explained the importance of public participation in environmental protection efforts for the preservation of our environment, and particularly water sources that are used to supply the vital liquid to the population of the municipality.

He said the sewer infrastructure that processes domestic wastewater is exposed to debris from the restaurant industry, car wash business and the kitchens in our homes. These are precisely the origins of technical problems, both health and ecological, as these substances clog the pipes with grease, oil and solidified lubricants.

Professor Rodriguez Salgado invited all the citizens of Puerto Vallarta to join the "Oil Control Program and its Use as Biofuel" campaign, which represents an essential step in facilitating the collection of fats that are generated in the home, processing them, and then reusing them as low-polluting bio fuel. She stressed that "...this will allow us to regulate the quality of wastewater in the drainage system, ensuring the proper functioning and protection of the city's wastewater treatment infrastructure."