McDonald's waste to heat local buildings
UK Press Releases
September 18, 2007
In a UK first, refuse from McDonald's restaurants is to be used to heat local buildings.
The initiative will see 11 McDonald's restaurants in Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley participate in a pilot scheme, in which waste from the sites will be turned into electricity and heat for local buildings.
The restaurants will become the first of their kind in the UK to send no waste to landfill. Instead, it will be collected by McDonald's waste contractor, Veolia Environmental Services, who will then treat the waste at its state of the art Energy Recovery Facility in Sheffield where it is then converted into electricity and heat.
Steve Easterbrook, President and Chief Executive Officer, McDonald's UK, said: "This is a great example of how businesses can work together to tackle big environmental challenges.
"At the moment, it is difficult for companies like McDonald's to recycle waste. Many recycling contractors refuse to take our waste because we cannot remove food from it completely. As a result, we have to send it to landfill. This trial is an exciting opportunity to look at an alternative method of disposal with real benefits for the environment and local community."
The scheme will save each restaurant from sending 100 tonnes of refuse to landfill each year and will help to provide heating for 130 local buildings such as Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Park Hill flats, The Lyceum Theatre, Millennium Galleries, Weston Park Hospital and even Sheffield City Hall.
McDonald's plans to roll out the programme to further restaurants in the Sheffield area and hopes to extend it across the UK in the future.
Easterbrook continued: "As a progressive company, we are constantly trying to find ways to run our business in a more sustainable way. However, like many companies, we find that we are currently constrained by the lack of infrastructure needed to support initiatives like this across the UK. If the trial is successful we are keen to explore how we can extend it to other parts of the country as part of our ongoing efforts to improve our impact on the environment and local communities."
The 11 restaurants in the pilot will also trial a range of environmentally-friendly technologies and processes, including solar panels, wind power, energy efficient lighting and a recycling scheme for cardboard.
David Pratt, carbon management account manager at the Carbon Trust, which is working with McDonald's to evaluate the different projects said; "The Carbon Trust is working with McDonald's in a number of different ways to help them cut carbon. The waste to energy pilot is one element of that project and we look forward to assessing the CO2 savings of this initiative on McDonald's carbon footprint. We welcome the steps that McDonalds are taking to reduce their emissions as part of UK business efforts to fight climate change."
For further information please contact McDonald's press office on 020 8700 7320.
Notes to editors:
About Veolia Environmental Services
Veolia Environmental Services, part of the Veolia Environment Group, is the UK's leading waste management company. With a sizeable presence throughout the UK, mainland Europe and the world, Veolia Environmental Services employs 80,700 people worldwide, servicing more than 45 million inhabitants across 35 countries.
Veolia Environmental Services is the only global provider of a full range of services for handling hazardous and non-hazardous solid and liquid waste. It provides waste management and logistics services as well as materials recovery and recycling. Veolia Environmental Services generated revenue of €7.4 billion in 2006.
Further information can be obtained by visiting the website: www.veolia.co.uk
About the Carbon Trust
· The Carbon Trust is a private company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector to create practical business-focused solutions through its external work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise.
· The Carbon Trust is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest Northern Ireland.
· For more information on the Carbon Trust visit www.carbontrust.co.uk or call the Carbon Trust Advice Line on 0800 085 2005.
Fact sheet attached on McDonald's sustainability
