Free printable vouchers
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Free competitions
 

Sainsbury's To Convert All Food Waste Into Biofuel

Mon, 26 Jan 2009

Sainsbury's has announced plans to turn all unsold food produce into fuel suitable for generating electricity .

The UK's third largest supermarket chain is to fast-track its new zero-waste initiative in Scotland, where it hopes to stop sending food waste to landfill by the end of next month.

Instead, roughly 42 tonnes of waste from its 28 Scottish stores will each week be sent to a biofuel refinery plant in Motherwell and converted into electricity .

Sainsburys said each tonne of food waste diverted from landfill in Scotland will generate enough electricity for 500 homes and will save three tonnes of CO2 compared with fossil fuels .

The new eco-friendly scheme will be rolled out throughout the rest of the UK - to include all 283 Sainsbury stores - by the summer.

Alison Austin, Sainsbury's environment manager, commented: "This move underlines our commitment to the Scottish Government's zero waste ambition. Scotland is at the forefront of our wider UK plan to completely cut our dependence on landfill."

"Businesses throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK need to demonstrate their commitment to finding workable, commercially sound solutions to today's environmental problems."

Austin added that the scheme would also result in around 336 waste-collection lorries being taken off the road.