01 Jul 07. The oils that sizzle McDonald’s fries and chicken nuggets will soon also stoke its trucks, as the fast food chain starts converting its cooking oil into biodiesel. McDonald’s plans to run its 155 UK delivery trucks on biodiesel made entirely from cooking oil collected from its restaurants by the end of the year. The fast-food group, which to date has been running trucks on 95
per cent diesel and 5 per cent biodiesel, will initially use a blend of 85 per cent biodiesel and 15 per cent rapeseed oil. The move is further evidence of the importance the group is attaching to overhauling its environmental image. A year ago, after a sustained campaign by Greenpeace, McDonald’s agreed to stop using soya from newly deforested land in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. This year, it started selling coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance in its UK restaurants, a move that it says boosted sales by 10 per cent. (Source: FT.com)
Comment: This initiative would also apply to MoD fleets and those in theatre where mobile processing plants are now available to recycle cooking and other oils used in theatre.
03 Jul 07. Pentagon Rips Up Old F-14 Fighter Planes. A mechanical monster grabs the F-14 fighter jet and chews through one wing and then another, ripping off the Tomcat’s appendages before moving on to its guts. Finally, all that’s left is a pile of shredded rubble. Within a workday, a fighter jet that once soared as a showpiece of U.S. air power can be destroyed at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., the military’s “boneyard” for retired aircraft. The Pentagon is paying a contractor at least $900,000 to chop up old F-14s rather than sell the spares and risk their falling into the wrong hands, including Iran’s. (Source: Washington Times/Defense News)
03 Jul 07. Land Rover told BATTLESPACE that the company can still supply new 300tdi engines due to an all time buy of new units from Brazil before closure. The all time buy was based on the past three years of supply of over 250 fully dressed units into SUV. Once the stock of new units has been sold Land Rover will look to remanufacture worn core in the same manner as Hobson Industries. (See: BATTLESPACE MILITARY VEHICLE NEWS Vol. 6 Issue 4, ABRO HANDS OVER PILOT ‘TITHONOUS’ VEHICLE AT DVD By Julian Nettlefold, Editor, BATTLESPACE)