Running on Rubbish: Supermarket Comes Off National Grid to Be Powered by Food Waste Alone

23rd June 2014

Industry partners Biffa and Sainsbury's are today celebrating an innovative facility that will allow Sainsbury'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 send 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 1.5km 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

Sainsbury's zero waste to landfill

In June 2013, Sainsbury's achieved its 20x20 sustainability target of putting all its store waste to positive use – and diverting it from landfill.

All general waste from stores is recycled or turned into fuel. Surplus food that can't be used by our charity partners to feed vulnerable people is now processed into animal feed to support British farmers or used to generate energy through anaerobic digestion.

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 Anaerobic Digestion technology

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 is one of the leading waste management companies in the UK, employing nearly 6,000 people and collecting 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.