A Sainsbury’s in the West Midlands will be the first to try out a new system to run on electricity created from anaerobic digestion. This will be powered solely by food waste.
Biffa have worked alongside Sainsbury’s to develop new technology. Food waste from around the chain’s supermarkets in the UK is transported to Biffa’s plant in Cannock. It is then turned into bio-methane gas, and used to generate electricity for the supermarket delivered through a 1.5km long electricity cable.
Enough power is generated through Sainsbury’s anaerobic digestion to power 2,500 homes each year.
Sainsbury’s is ahead of many other supermarkets and claim that all general waste from stores is either recycled or turned into fuel. A key example of this is that waste bananas from one of their Liverpool stores are sent to Knowsley safari park to feed the monkeys.
The head of sustainability at Sainsbury’s, Paul Crewe, has expressed his excitement stating, “We send absolutely no waste to landfill and are always looking for new ways to reuse and recycle. So we’re delighted to be the first business ever to make use of this linkup technology, allowing our Cannock store to be powered entirely by our food waste.”
