INDIA – McDonald’s franchise holder Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd is recycling its own used cooking oil to make biodiesel that is used to power all its delivery trucks in Mumbai.
The energy from used cooking oil is also used to power the refrigeration system for the trucks.
According to the company, the new source of energy helps to reduce its carbon footprint as it is a cleaner fuel with 75% lower carbon emissions than diesel over its entire lifecycle.
A pilot programme for the project was started last year, has been scaled up to cover all 85 restaurants in Mumbai and today the company converts more than 35,000 liters of used cooking oil into biodiesel every month.
Used cooking oil at the restaurants is collected by a team from the distribution centre who takes it to the converting facility in tankers.
The oil is then converted into biodiesel, sent back to distribution centres then used in dedicated refrigerated trucks for McDonald’s supply logistics in Mumbai.
Amit Jatia, vice chairman Westlife Development said: “We strongly believe in protecting our environment and that makes sustainability and conservation an important part of our operations in India.
Today, we are happy to announce this industry-leading initiative towards sustainability by converting our used oil into biodiesel for distribution of supplies at our restaurants.
This is just the beginning and we will continue to champion the cause of environment protection in the years to come.
We are grateful to our suppliers who have closely worked with us to improve the economic, ethical, and environmental impact of our supply chain.”
The company plans to pilot the project in Bengaluru and in the long run bring all its 277 outlets under the recycling programme.
The programme is implemented in collaboration with Unicon Biofuels who play an important part in ensuring conversion of the cooking oil to biodiesel was in accordance with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
“The Biodiesel Association of India encourages all food companies to learn from this initiative and apply it to their business model,” commended Sandeep Chaturvedi, president of the Biodiesel Association of India.
