Taking a step towards a sustainable future, McDonald’s has become the first company in the food industry in India to recycle used cooking oil into biodiesel for powering the company’s refrigerated supply delivery trucks.

Biodiesel made from used cooking oil is a cleaner fuel with 75% lower carbon emissions than diesel, over its entire life cycle. It is an eco-friendly fuel that helps limit global warming, said a company statement adding that Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd, the master franchisee for McDonald’s in west and south India, is now powering all its delivery trucks in Mumbai with biodiesel made from its used cooking oil.

The company started this as a pilot last year and has scaled it up to cover all 85 restaurants in Mumbai. Today, the company is converting more than 35,000 litres of used cooking oil every month into biodiesel, amounting to a saving over 420,000 litres of crude oil annually, the statement added.

The process of conversion begins at the restaurant where the team from the distribution centre collects used cooking oil. The oil is then taken to the converting facility, where it is converted into bio-diesel and sent back to the distribution centre. It is then used in dedicated refrigerated trucks for McDonald’s supply logistics in Mumbai.

“We strongly believe in protecting our environment and that makes sustainability and conservation an important part of our operations in India,” said Amit Jatia, Vice Chairman, Westlife Development Ltd.

Over the next four years, HRPL is looking at expanding its restaurant footprint to 450-500, which means using about 15 lakh litres of used oil to make biodiesel for running its refrigerated delivery trucks. That is a reduction of over 4,000 MT of carbon emissions equal to planting about two lakh trees, the statement said.

Speaking on the initiative, President of the Biodiesel Association Of India, Sandeep Chaturvedi, said, “We are delighted to know that that HRPL has become the first restaurant chain in the country to implement sustainable biodiesel by successfully recycling its used cooking oil. HRPL and Unicon Biofuels have been working for the past one year to convert used cooking oil to biodiesel as per the Bureau of Indian Standards. The Biodiesel Association of India encourages all food companies to learn from this initiative and apply it in their own business model.”