In all, the scheme creates enough green gas to offset some 10 per cent of our entire annual gas consumption, meaning we’re running a cleaner, more efficient business by recycling our waste.
In all, the scheme creates gas equivalent to 10 per cent of our entire national gas consumption.
Going off-grid
In a second project, we have a superstore which runs entirely on electricity generated from food waste.
In this scheme, the food from Sainsbury’s – along with other waste suppliers – is sent to a plant near our Cannock store in Staffordshire. There, it’s converted into gas and used to generate electricity on site, which is then supplied directly to the supermarket via a cable.
It means that, for day-to-day electricity consumption, our Cannock superstore is running on rubbish and completely off-grid.
Reducing food waste
Turning food waste into energy is a success – but ironically, it is one of those rare achievements that we’re trying to scale back.
That’s because we’re trying to reduce food waste as much as possible: and in 2015/16 we succeeded, cutting the amount of food waste we convert into energy by 9.4% to 26,910 tonnes.
After all, it’s better not to waste food in the first place than trying to recover energy from it at the end of the chain. But where food can’t be saved, we’re proud to be helping generate green gas.