McDonald's will power its trucks by recycling used cooking oil

MUMBAI: In a unique green initiative, McDonald's announced Monday it has begun recycling several tonnes of used cooking oil from its restaurants into biodiesel fuel to power its fleet of refrigerated trucks.

The pilot project initiated last year covers the 85 McDonald's stores in Mumbai and will soon be expanded to more than 275 branches in the western and southern regions of India, said Vikram Ogale, director of Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd (HRPL).

As a result, HRPL now converts more than 35 tonnes (35,000 liters) of used cooking oil each month into biodiesel for its fleet of 25 refrigerated trucks, representing an annual saving of more than 420,000 liters crude oil.
Ogale said that biodiesel made from used cooking oil is cleaner, with 75% lower carbon emissions than diesel throughout its life cycle, making it a better choice. environmentally friendly fuel.

In fact, even the refrigeration equipment on trucks is now fueled by biodiesel, he added.

Explaining the process, Ogale said the oil used to fry fries and other foods is collected from restaurants and conveyed to the processing facility in tanks, converted to biodiesel and returned to be used in the supply logistics of McDonald's Group. city.

Westlife Development Ltd. Vice President, Amit Jatia, said that over the next four years, HRPL plans to expand its restaurants to around 450-500.

"That means about 15 liters of used oil to make biodiesel to run the truck fleet, thus reducing more than 4,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, which equates to planning about 200,000 trees ", stressed Jatia.

Biodiesel Association of India (BAI) (President Sandeep Chaturvedi said that HRPL is the first chain of restaurants in the country to implement sustainable biodiesel by recycling its used cooking oil.

"The BAI encourages all food companies to learn from this initiative and apply it in their own business model," Jatia insisted.

In a statement, HRPL reported that it had presented its biodiesel initiative to FSSAI, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Petroleum, public biofuel development agencies in various states, oil companies, food companies , ICN, AIFPA and NASVI. from others, with the aim of popularizing it.