Sainsbury’s is making a bid to become the UK’s first retailer to manage all of its own waste, with a £9 million investment over the next two years to open five food recycling plants.
It is a joint venture with British food recycling specialist BiogenGreenfinch, the aim is to construct the first site by the end of 2009 as part of Sainsbury’s plans to send no waste to landfill and save millions of pounds a year.
Sainsbury’s has been piloting the initiative at BiogenGreenfinch’s existing recycling plant in Bedfordshire, which receives waste from the grocer’s Northampton distribution centre. The joint venture’s first site will be the Westwoodplant in Northampton next year.
BiogenGreenfinch’s sites break down food waste by using anaerobic digestion technology. The low carbon technology is widely acknowledged to be the most sustainable way of recycling food waste to produce fertiliser and clean energy, including electricity.
Food waste accounts for three-quarters of the 80,000 tonnes of waste that Sainsbury’s currently sends to landfill each year and has initially forecast savings of £2 million a year, which could rise with site-shares and reduced electricity bills.
Lawrence Christensen, of Sainsbury’s environmental action team, said: “These sites will become profit centres. The waste to landfill costs about £7m a year. In addition to the environmental impact, there is a big capital cost to the company.”
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