The fleet logistics trucks for McDonald’s UAE has achieved the milestone of running a fleet of 16 lorries for 5,000,000km over four years on a biofuel derived entirely from recycled vegetable oil from its outlets in the emirates.
As a result, the US fast food giant has become an unlikely pioneer of reclaimed biodiesel in the UAE, saving the equivalent to the average annual carbon footprint of 214,283 UAE citizens, according to World Bank figures.
McDonald’s UAE is also the first franchise in the MENA region to recycle the entirety of its waste cooking oil to refuel the company’s logistics fleet as they go about their business.
“We are committed to protect and preserve the environment for future generations and we are aiming to continue using our planet’s resources efficiently,” said Rafic Fakih, MD and partner at McDonald’s UAE.
Karl Feilder, chairman of Neutral Fuels, told UAE news outlet 7days: “This milestone demonstrates long-term commercial innovation in action and proves beyond a doubt that biodiesel is the most viable commercial alternative to old-style fossil fuels.”
The initiative to recycle the company’s waste cooking oil in the UAE began on July 2011 in partnership with the UAE-based clean tech firm Neutral Fuels, and supported by Dubai FDI, the foreign investment promotion arm of the Department of Economic Development.
McDonald’s UAE has reduced the CO2 footprint of its 16 lorries over the four years of the scheme from an estimated 4,427,759kg of CO2 to just 56,385kg of CO2.
The global advanced biofuels market, which includes recycled vegetable oil, is expected to reach $24bn by 2020, rising at a CAGR of 50% from 2014, according to Allied Market Research. Neutral Fuels produces around 400,000 litres a month — an estimated 1% of the UAE’s potential market.
