McDonald’s UK has committed to running its delivery fleet on 100% biodiesel made with its own used cooking oil. The announcement, made earlier this week (2nd July), will mean oil from around 900 McDonald’s UK restaurants will be combined with pure rapeseed oil to make high-quality biodiesel to fuel the company’s delivery vehicles.

The carbon saving of the move will be 1,675 tonnes annually when the national roll-out is completed - the equivalent of removing 2,424 family cars from the road each year.

The switch to 100% biodiesel follows an extensive trial by McDonald’s and its distribution partner, Keystone Distribution UK, which began in August 2006. During this trial, 150,000 litres of McDonald’s used cooking oil was collected and successfully added to the conversion process for high-quality EN14214 grade biodiesel.

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

Speaking ahead of the McDonald’s sponsored conference on sustainable energy at the Royal Show, the company’s Senior Vice President Matthew Howe said: “Our approach to the environment is reduce, reuse, recycle, and we try to do this in everything that we do.

“We have been sending our used cooking oil for recycling for some time, but we are delighted to now have a practical, efficient use for it within our own business.

“This is a great example of how businesses can work together to help the environment, and is a natural complement to the work we are doing to our delivery schedules to cut food miles and fuel consumption. We don’t intend to stop here. Our work with the Carbon Trust will help us find more ways, big and small, to reduce our carbon impact across the whole of our business.”

Initially, the biodiesel used will be made from 85% used cooking oil, collected from McDonald’s restaurants, and 15% from pure rapeseed oil. McDonald’s will continue to work with suppliers in order to minimise the need for pure rapeseed oil in the manufacturing process.