Sainsbury Supermarket is Powered by Food Waste Alone

UK waste management company Biffa and Sainsbury have unveiled an innovative facility that will allow…

UK waste management company Biffa and Sainsbury have unveiled an innovative facility that will allow the UK retail group’s Cannock store to run on power generated solely from the supermarket’s own food waste.

Using Biffa’s advanced anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities and a unique power link up, Sainsbury’s Cannock store will be powered using electricity generated using food waste from Sainsbury’s stores across the UK.

This ground-breaking project helps to close the loop on food recycling and Sainsbury’s to continue to send zero operational waste to landfill.

How it Works

Sainsbury’s sends zero operational waste to landfill. Any food waste that is unsuitable for charitable donations or animal feed is sent to anaerobic digestion at Biffa to be converted to energy.

This remaining food waste is collected from Sainsbury’s supermarkets around the UK using Sainsbury’s delivery lorries. It is returned to Biffa’s plant in Cannock.

The food waste is turned into bio-methane gas, which is then used to generate electricity at the Biffa plant.

Electricity for Sainsbury’s Cannock store is directly supplied to the supermarket via a newly constructed new 1.5 km long electricity cable.

The new power supply – built in partnership with Biffa – means the Cannock store will come off the National Grid for day to day electricity consumption.

Sainsbury’s is already the UK’s largest retail user of anaerobic digestion, generating enough energy to power 2,500 homes each year.

Biffa’s Poplars site in Staffordshire is the largest operational AD plant in the UK dealing with source segregated food waste. The facility is licensed to process 120,000 tonnes of food waste per annum, and is supported by a fleet of specialist vehicles collecting food waste from large and small customers nationwide.

Biffa employs nearly 6,000 people and collects 2.6m tonnes of industrial and commercial waste every year. Biffa now produces a range of renewable energy types at 41 of its UK sites.