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Since its inception, the European Union has boosted the creation of a binding shared legal framework for the present Member States including Spain. In this context, the European Union has promoted the creation of a legal body aiming at protecting the environment which is one of its main goals. The inception of the First Environmental Action Programme in 1973 fostered the adoption of more than one hundred documents with regard to this field during the seventies. The Community has set many objectives in its environmental policy. These appear in the Article 191.1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The principle of integration of the environmental protection requirements into the definition and implementation of the Union’s policies and activities (article 11), “in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development” has been the pillar upholding different policies fostering an efficient use of resources. In the field of waste management the Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste and repealing certain Directives in connection with the Union's Europe 2020 strategy, harmonizes the Union’s economic development with an efficient use of resources. Consequently, one of the most ambitious Union’s claims is preventing waste generation and if they are produced, its proper management, prioritizing the waste hierarchy established in the Article 4 of the Directive: prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery, (e.g. energy recovery) and disposal. As will be discussed, wastes from edible vegetable oils produced in the HORECA channel can be transformed in other products. Due to its polluting potential and its market value, this option has to be a priority for the Member States that must ensure an effective and efficient management of this waste flow. Additionally, we will have the opportunity of analyzing the territorial competence under the scope of the article 12.5.c).2º of the Ley 22/2011 that regulates the optional activity of local councils regarding with non-hazardous commercial wastes. Notwithstanding, the national legal framework covers the local councils in order to compel the producers of these wastes to join the municipal management system, as long as this obligation is motivated and based on criteria of efficacy and efficiency on waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]