It has been just 17 months since McDonalds announced its intention to recycle all of its vegetable oil for use as biofuel in its own fleet. Officially launched in July, 2011, the United Arab Emirates’ biodiesel program – the first of its kind in the region – appears to be a soaring success.
The McDonald’s fleet has traveled a combined 808,411 miles on the biofuel processed by Nuetral Fuels, diverting roughly 80% of its carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere . Dubai FDI, the foreign investment promotion arm of the Department of Economic Development, helped to support this groundbreaking recycling project.
Already 100% of the oil collected from McDonalds locations throughout the emirate locations is filtered and converted by Neutral Foods into 100% biodiesel; not a drop is wasted.
“This milestone marks a proud moment in the history of McDonald’s UAE,” said Mr. Rafik Fakih, Managing Director and Partner of McDonald’s UAE.
“In just 17 months, we’ve achieved incredible results which have made a significant contribution to the reduction of our carbon emissions in the Emirates. We hope to take this sustainable initiative a step further by increasing our usage of biodiesel in the years to come.”
“We operate a closed loop system for McDonald’s UAE where every drop of biodiesel is converted from their own used vegetable oil and is used in 100% of their logistics fleet 100% of the time in an ongoing recycling process,” said Karl Feilder, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Neutral Fuels – McDonald’s clean tech partner.
“Every day McDonald’s proves that biodiesel is a viable long-term sustainable alternative for the environment.”
:: Ame Info
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Mc Donald’s is most likely saving money for them selves too. but the clear-cutting of the south American rain forest is the biggest problem, with all this meat being consumed ask them about that.