Chick-Fil-A announces plan to convert its used cooking oil to biofuel

Chick-fil-A will partner with food manufacturing company Darling Ingredients Inc. to convert its used cooking oil into cleaner-burning renewable transportation fuel.

“At Chick-fil-A, we are committed to caring – and that includes caring for others through our food and caring for our planet,” said Chick-fil-A Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Rodney Bullard in a statement on Monday. “Our innovative partnership with DAR PRO Solutions helps us be responsible stewards of the resources at our restaurants and allows us to support the future of renewable transportation fuel – all while positively influencing the communities we serve.”

DAR PRO Solutions, Darling Ingredients’s used cooking oil recycling company, will be given the used oil from Chick-fil-A locations in the U.S., which include restaurants in 47 states and the District of Columbia, and in Canada.

“We admire Chick-fil-A’s commitment to reducing food waste and are proud to be part of a solution that keeps food waste out of our landfills while delivering a renewable fuel that reduces GHG emissions,” said Darling Ingredients Executive Vice President for Renewables and U.S. Specialty Operations Sandra Dudley.

Darling Ingredients’s Diamond Green Diesel project “turns hundreds of millions of pounds of used cooking oil into renewable diesel” every year, according to the company.

Darling Ingredients estimated that this year the project will produce over 700 million gallons of renewable diesel, which it said can reduce greenhouse gases by as much as 85 percent.