Supermarket retailer Sainsbury’s has called for more incentives for investment in anaerobic digestion (AD) technology as it struggles to find enough capacity in the UK to deal with its food waste.
The call comes as
Sainsbury's has signed a three-year deal with waste contractor Biffa to
recycle food waste from 40 of its stores in the Midlands.
“We are desperate for greater
anaerobic digestion capacity and would therefore like to see greater, clearer incentives for
investment in this green
technology,” said Neil Sachdev, Sainsbury’s commercial director.
Sainsbury’s currently uses a number of different management methods as part of its ‘Zero Food Waste to Landfill Network’, but AD is its preferred solution. As far back as 2008, it announced that it would be sending all of its food waste to AD facilities so that it could be used to create renewable electricity. However, capacity in the AD sector is lagging behind its requirements, and the supermarket is currently looking at 2012 before all of its food waste will be able to be recycled using AD technology.
Anaerobic digestion is a technology that produces energy from organic material, such as food waste and manure. It produces a nutrient-rich digestate, which can be used as fertiliser, and keeps organic waste out of landfill, cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK produces over 100 million tonnes of organic material per year from food waste, livestock slurries, sewage sludge and energy crops, all of which could be converted to produce biogas.
A 2008 Defra report suggested AD could produce 7.5 per cent of the renewable power the UK will need by 2020.
Biffa state-of-the-art AD plantBiffa said it had been working on the AD contract with Sainsbury’s for the past 18 months. The food waste will be collected from 40 Sainsbury’s stores in the Midlands and will be recycled at Biffa’s mixed waste anaerobic digestion plant at Wanlip, Leicestershire.
“[We’ve had to] optimise the performance of the Wanlip AD plant and then to secure the necessary authorisations to receive food waste direct,” explained Biffa’s Engineering director John Casey. “We now have a state-of-the-art plant achieving best in class reliability and optimal biogas production.”
Biffa’s Wanlip plant was the first mixed waste AD plant to have been built in the UK. The company said it was now working on new AD capacity in the Midlands and elsewhere, including a new plant in Cannock, Staffordshire, which is due to be fully operational by Autumn 2010.
Biffa and Sainsbury’s have been working together since October 2005.