Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited (HRPL). the master franchisee for fast-food chain McDonald’s, has come up with a unique way to power its delivery trucks. The firm recycles used cooking oil and converts it into biodiesel which is used to power its refrigerated supply delivery trucks. Currently, the company converts over 9,000 gallons of used cooking oil into biodiesel every month.
HRPL started the pilot last year in partnership with Unicon Biofuels. Vikram Ogale, director, Supply Chain and Quality Assurance at Hardcastle, said that the company, so far, collects the used cooking oil from eighty-five restaurants in Mumbai, and will soon bring all its 277 outlets under the recycling program. He added that the biodiesel conforms to the grade approved by the Bureau of Indian Standards. He claims that the recycled oil is a cleaner fuel with 75 percent lesser carbon emissions over its entire life cycle than diesel.
