McDonald's to recycle cooking oil for fuel

"We are pretty much buying the whole (UK) crop. Our goal is to get to 100 percent high oleic rape," he said, adding McDonald's is encouraging UK farmers to grow more high oleic rapeseed.

Seed companies have expressed concerns that the growth of demand for rapeseed oil from the biofuels sector was hampering the expansion of healthier but sometimes lower yielding high oleic varieties.

By using the fuel, McDonald's will save 1,675 tonnes of carbon per year, the company said.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Magnowski in London)