McDonald’s to run fleet on home-made biodiesel

02 July 2007 15:32  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Fast food giant McDonald’s will convert its UK delivery fleet to run on 100% biodiesel made from its own used cooking oil, the company said on Monday.

 

All 155 vehicles in the delivery fleet will be converted to run on the fuel, starting from Monday, with half of the 45 vehicle fleet that operates from McDonald’s distribution centre in Basingstoke, UK. 

 

The biodiesel will be made from a mixture of 15% rapeseed oil and 85% used cooking oil, taken from around 900 of McDonald’s 1,200 outlets in the UK, to a quality complying with the European EN14214 biodiesel specification.

 

McDonald’s estimated that 1,675 tonnes/year of carbon would be reduced when the national roll-out was completed

 

Senior vice president Matthew Howe said the company did not intend to stop there in its bid to become a more environmentally conscious organisation.

 

“This is a natural complement to the work we are doing to our delivery schedules to cut food miles and fuel consumption,” he said.

 

“We will find more ways to reduce our carbon impact across the whole of our business.”

 

Rapeseed methyl ester (RME) biodiesel was currently trading at around $995/tonne (€731/tonne) free on board (FOB) northwest Europe (NWE) for end of year delivery, according to global chemical intelligence service ICIS pricing.

 

($1 = €0.74)

By: Nicolette Allen
+44 20 8652 3214

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