A two year around-the-world trip adventure on a recycled truck 'Biotruck'.

After two years driving around the world fuelled only by waste cooking oil in their truck built out of rubbish, Andy Pag and Christina Ammon have finally circled the planet and made it back to the UK.

The recycled truck, made from trash and powered by restaurant scraps, arrived back in the UK on 9 September, 2011 after a two year around-the-world. Andy Pag (36, London UK) and Christina Ammon (36, Oregon USA) have driven their ‘Biotruck’ fuelled by used cooking oil which they scavenged from fryers along their 30,000km planet-circling tour across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas.

Pag built the truck in 2009 using an old school bus salvaged from a scrap yard and used reclaimed materials to turn it into a cosy eco-home. He converted the engine to run on waste cooking oil, installing a filtering system and large tank under the bed, and said, “It was an experiment to see if we could recycle our way around the world. I’m as surprised as anyone that we got around the world without putting any fossil fuel in the tank.”    Four years ago Pag drove a chocolate powered lorry to Timbuktu, using biodiesel made from factory waste cocoa butter.

Finding waste vegetable oil along the journey was only one of the challenges. Constant breakdowns dogged the 22-year-old Mercedes bus and the route ventured through southern Pakistan where Taliban fighters often attack road convoys. In India Pag was arrested on suspicion of terrorism and imprisoned in the infamous Ajmer Prison, holding up the trip for months.

But the couple, who met and fell in love during the journey, maintain that the highs far outweigh the lows. “The breakdowns were the best bit,” said Ammon. “That’s when we met the most interesting, friendly people and had the unique sort of adventures and insights which you can’t have travelling any other way.”

“We couldn’t have done it without the enthusiasm and help from the strangers we met along the road, and from our sponsors,” added Pag, “The random acts of kindness have given us an overwhelming faith in how great humankind is.”

The recycling road trip was inspired by a desire to travel on a sustainable carbon budget, and the couple say that travelling around the world using things others have thrown away has convinced them that tackling consumption-culture is the key to reducing carbon emissions.

After a brief stop in the UK the couple and the truck head south through Europe to Africa. They update their blog www.biotruckexpedition.org regularly and are writing a book about their adventure. They plan to tour schools and businesses in the UK early next year, giving talks and sharing the lessons they've learned along their journey about the effects of climate change and carbon reduction efforts in the countries they visited.

Above photo: Christina Ammon, Andy Pag and the Biotruck in Death Valley, California.  Below: Andy Pag fixes the Biotruck again … in a desert somewhere in the world.