Sainsbury’s store runs on electricity generated from food waste

New York -- Sainsbury’s has entered into a unique arrangement that closes the loop on food recycling. Its store in Cannock, Staffordshire, England, has come off the country’s national power grid for day-to-day electricity consumption and is running on power generated solely from food waste from Sainsbury’s supermarkets across the United Kingdom.



The new power supply was built in partnership with waste recycling company Biffa, and uses Biffa’s advanced anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities and a unique power link up.



Here’s how it works: The waste is collected from Sainsbury’s supermarkets using Sainsbury’s delivery trucks and delivered to Biffa’s plant in Cannock. It is then turned into bio-methane gas, which is then used to generate electricity at the Biffa plant. Electricity is directly supplied to the Cannock supermarket via a newly constructed electricity cable.



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.