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Used cooking oil partnership leads to more than 1 million gallons of renewable fuels

3 aug. 2026

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In a partnership between our restaurant services brand, DAR PRO Solutions, and Chick-fil-A, Inc., more than 2,000 locally owned and operated Chick-fil-A restaurants in the United States and Canada are helping produce something that isn’t on the menu — low-carbon feedstock for renewable diesel fuel and sustainable aviation fuel.

The North American Rendering Association estimates that commercial kitchens across North America generate 4.4 billion pounds of used cooking oil annually. Disposal of that oil can be a messy and potentially dangerous job for restaurant employees. 

 

In 2023, Chick-fil-A turned to us to make this task safer, more efficient, and to create an upcycling opportunity that does good for the environment. 

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Once a restaurant's in-kitchen holding tanks are full, our trucks connect from the outside of the restaurant for easy collection – creating a simple, efficient system that improves safety and operations.  

“We can sometimes serve about 2,000 meals a day at one location,” says Chris Hall, a local Owner-Operator of two Chick-fil-A restaurants in Arizona, “So when you think about the amount of oil used in the course of a day or a week or a month, it’s pretty awesome that we have a partner to recycle that.” 

 

Designed with safety first, our process eliminates the need for Chick-fil-A team members to handle hot used cooking oil. We work with each restaurant to install in-kitchen holding tanks, allowing oil to be safely collected and stored. Once full, our trucks connect from the outside of the restaurant for easy collection – creating a simple, efficient system that improves safety and operations. 

 

The used cooking oil is taken to one of our local facilities to remove impurities and process it into low-carbon-intensity feedstock for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. It then travels to Diamond Green Diesel, our joint venture, to be refined and sold to fuel trucks and planes. 

 

In 2025, we collected 9.9 million pounds of used cooking oil from Chick-fil-A restaurants, which was used to create more than 1.1 million gallons of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.  This avoided as many carbon emissions as more than 23 million miles driven by cars, or 195 flights between New York and Los Angeles. 

 

In addition to this partnership, we provide used cooking oil collection services to more than 160,000 food service locations around the United States and Canada. From this and other low carbon intensity feedstocks, Diamond Green Diesel produced more than 1 billion total gallons of renewable fuels in 2025.

 

Our partnership with Chick-fil-A is just one example of how we work with companies around the world to find value in everyday processes, help streamline operations and transform materials others often view as waste into something that helps power the world.

Used cooking oil collection
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