McDonald’s launches oil-to-biofuel partnership in the Netherlands

McDonald’s, Neste and HAVI have entered into a circular economic partnership in the Netherlands. 

The collaboration will see the global fast-food chain recycling the used cooking oil from its french fries into a low carbon biofuel. The fuel will then be used in HAVI trucks, which deliver goods to 252 Dutch McDonald’s restaurants. 

Neste, a leading provider of renewable diesel, said the recycled oil will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% over the fuel’s life cycle, compared to that of fossil fuel. 

HAVI will collect the used cooking oil, while Neste will convert the oil at its Rotterdam refinery into the renewable diesel for HAVI’s trucks. 

Jeroen Dekkers, head of supply chain at McDonald’s Netherlands said: “McDonald’s is committed to sustainability through its Scale for Good programme. We are big enough to make a difference. Circularity and reducing waste are one of the pillars of our ongoing sustainability programme.

“The collaboration with Neste and HAVI is an excellent example of how we can make circularity a practical reality. We are connecting the recycling of a valuable waste fraction, which we have been doing for years, to our ambitions to reduce our climate impact.”

Together with HAVI we developed a roadmap to see what steps we could take to reduce our carbon emissions from the logistics side and to make our logistics more future-proof,” he continued. “In addition to switching to renewable diesel, this entails a look into hybrid and electric vehicles and using logistic city hubs to reduce inner-city movements,” 

Carl Nyberg, executive vice president for Neste’s renewable road transportation business unit, also commented on the partnership: “Neste’s ambition is to become a global leader in renewable and circular solutions. We are excited to partner with McDonald’s in the Netherlands and HAVI to demonstrate how circular economy can be promoted in practice.

We want to partner with forward-thinking businesses and cities and turn their used cooking oil, grease, or other waste into renewable fuel and products. The used cooking oil from McDonald’s is an excellent raw material for our Neste MY Renewable Diesel. The fuel is a renewable low-emission alternative to fossil diesel and requires no modifications to existing diesel-powered engines,” he said.