Used cooking oil from the Spur Corporation is now being converted into biodiesel. More than a million litres have already been sued to power a range of fishing vessels, trucks and mining equipment. Spur has run this initiative for around six years and to date, around 870 000 litres of biodiesel has been produced, translating into a saving of 3.1 million kg of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions.

Working through a Western Cape company, Envirodiesel, the oil is collected weekly from the group’s Spur Steak Ranches, Panarottis Pizza Pasta and John Dory’s Fish Grill Sushi, and is purified and converted to biodiesel which is then sold on to companies using this type of fuel. Envirodiesel even powers its own collection vehicles with the biodiesel as it is cleaner and more fuel-efficient than diesel and provides better engine lubrication.

Pieree van Tonder, the CEO of Spur Corporation says that the company has “made it mandatory that oil waste has to be collected from our restaurants once a week and a register is maintained to track compliance by all our franchisees. We are aware that some environmentalists do not promote bio-fuel production where land is involved that could be used to grow food. However, this is not an issue here. We are converting waste into a viable source of energy.

“Our head office waste reduction programme, which started in 2010, is running on target. We have cut our waste by 55% between 2010 and 2011 and over the past 12 months, reduced it by a further 64%.” Currently, over 80% of waste generated at the group’s Cape Town head office and more than 60% of waste generated at its Cape Town-based décor facility that supplies to its franchisees, is either recycled or composted.

The company has also successfully migrated from plastic-intensive takeaway packaging to paper-based packaging, derived from sustainably grown forests. It has worked hard to reduce the ink coverage as well as the number of colours used on packaging and branding material to ensure a substantial reduction in environmental impact during manufacturing.

Source: bizcommunity.com