UK grocery retailer Waitrose has announced that it is three months ahead of schedule in its aim of sending zero food waste to landfill. All 280 of the supermarket chain's UK branches will now send food waste which is unfit for consumption for recycling. The original completion date of this wide-scale recycling initiative was the end of 2012, but the goal was achieved last week.
Waitrose has partnered with Cawleys waste management company to utilise anaerobic digestion (AD) in order to eliminate food waste being sent to landfill. Waitrose first started the process in 2008, and was the first supermarket in the UK to send food waste to do so.
Cawleys, which was the first waste management company in Britain to offer a commercial food waste recycling service to AD, will use In Vessel Composting (IVC) where AD is not an option.
Mike Walters, Waitrose Recycling & Waste Manager, said, “Inevitably, we generate some surplus food, and where it is not fit to be donated to the local community, AD has proven to be a sustainable way of eliminating the need to send it to landfill, reducing our impact on the environment and creating renewable energy along the way.” (31 Oct)
© 2012 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
