In an innovative new plan to stop all food waste going to landfill, Sainsbury’s has joined forces with the PDM Group to divert food waste from landfill to generate renewable energy.

The first phase of the contract will see 42 tonnes of waste per week produced by Sainbury’s stores in Scotland being diverted from landfill and converted into biofuel and renewable energy.

This forms part of Sainsbury’s nationwide commitment to stop sending all food waste to landfill by summer 2009. The plan is being fast-tracked in Scotland from next month, making Sainsbury’s 28 stores in Scotland among the greenest in the country when it comes to waste. It will then be rolled out to all other stores throughout the UK.

Once the rollout is complete PDM will be recycling food waste from 283 of Sainsbury’s stores to generate renewable energy.

Speaking at this week’s Zero Waste conference in Edinburgh, Alison Austin, Sainsbury’s environmental manager said: “This move underlines our commitment to the Scottish Government’s zero waste ambition.

Scotland is at the forefront of our wider UK plan to completely cut our dependence on landfill. This is the first step in a plan that will see Sainsbury’s stop using landfill for food waste by this summer and stop using landfill completely by the end of the year.”

PDM’s commercial services director, Philip Simpson added: “We’re delighted to be working with Sainsbury’s to help them achieve their commendable goal to divert all food waste from landfill.

Using our company-owned network of biomass combustion plants and our new Anaerobic Digestion plants along with the recycling services of our Scottish partners, Caledonian Proteins, we are able to deliver sustainable solutions to Sainsbury’s across the UK.”

“Environmental issues are a top concern, especially in the retail sector. Food waste has traditionally been viewed as difficult to recycle, however this is not the case.

By using a combination of innovative technologies along with proven systems such as biomass combustion and anaerobic digestion we are able to not only to divert food waste from landfill but also use it to create energy – a valuable contribution to the UK’s energy strategy and a double win for retailers’ sustainability credentials.”