Salvador Turns Used Acarajé Palm Oil Into Green Energy

Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, is turning the used palm oil left over from its signature acarajé fritters into a source of green energy, under an initiative involving the city administration, state-run oil major Petrobras and the women who sell the snack.

The reddish-orange oil that once stained the waters around one of Brazil's most visited cities — flowing past beachgoers, kayakers and turtles — has historically clogged local sewage systems and polluted beaches when vendors discarded it to lighten their carts.

The project aims eventually to transform up to 6 million litres of waste oil a year into energy. More than 3,500 women sell acarajé at stalls across Salvador, a city often described as the "blackest city outside Africa," and they form the backbone of the scheme's supply chain.

City Hall is encouraging hundreds of them to join by offering incentives and licences meant to help their businesses operate in a more environmentally sound way. Vendors can receive 3 Brazilian reais (about 60 US cents) for every litre of palm oil they turn in, and the cooperative sometimes also gives them soap made from recycled palm oil.

Acarajé is a traditional fried street food from Bahia — African-inspired, shrimp-filled dumplings made from peeled black-eyed peas and onions and served with sauce. Palm oil, known in Brazil as 'azeite de dendê', reached Bahia's shores with enslaved Africans beginning in the 1530s, historians say, and has since become a key ingredient not only in acarajé but also in dishes such as moqueca, a fish stew, and vatapá, a paste made with bread, shrimp, coconut milk and ground peanuts.

Vendors are changing long-standing habits. Marilene dos Santos Oliveira, who fries acarajé at her stall, said she used to pour the oil into a bottle and throw it out with ordinary rubbish, unaware of any alternative. Now, she said, she and other Baianas know it cannot simply be discarded, and members of the Baianas do Acarajé Association no longer do so.

At the collection end, recyclable collector Elenildes Duarte said cooperatives that carry out door-to-door pickup have limited visibility, but with the city government's backing they can explain to everyone that the benefits extend beyond the cooperative to society as a whole.

Workers weigh the oil handed over by vendors, pour it into containers and transport it to a recycling centre, where it is transferred into larger tanks before processing.