The recycled cooking oil – B100 – is being sourced through a collection agreeement that Biffa’s Integrated Waste Management (IWM) team set up in 2011 with biofuel producer Convert2Green to convert customers’ used cooking oil into biodiesel.

To date, Biffa IWM has collected close to 700,000 litres of used cooking oil from its customers, and its municipal division has used over 1.3 million litres of biodiesel in its collection fleets.

Biffa Municipal had been running trials on the use of biodiesel for some time and during 2012, saved 1,451 tonnes of CO2 as a result.

With access to the waste oil from IWM customers such as Birds Eye, Premier Foods and Gatwick Airport, the scheme has been able to reduce the carbon impact not just of Biffa’s own operations, but also of some of its key customers.

Biffa says that by proving the business case for biodiesel, it has helped move sustainability from a desirable add-on to a core feature of the services operated by the company.

It is now working to secure further sustainable feedstock for bio-diesel production to allow wider applications across the municipal fleet. The company’s municipal division is planning to extend use of the bio-fuel to two further municipal contracts in 2013.

Maxine Perella

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