Sainsbury’s is to stop dumping thousands of tons of
waste food at landfill sites and will instead use it to generate its own electricity by converting it into methane gas. This gas will be used to provide light and heat for its stores.
What concerns me about this is the quality of wasted food they are throwing out, that they are forced to dump good food because of sell-by dates.
Is any of this food offered to homeless organisations, or families and pensioners living in poverty? Could we not have social network groups which collects left over supermarket food at the end of the day, let them take anything for free if it still looks edible rather than dump it.
At present, Sainsbury’s sends a whopping 60,000 tons of food waste to landfill every year from its 800 stores. It has been forced to consider alternatives because of soaring landfill tax costs; it presently stands at £30 a ton, but is set to rise to £38 next year and to £46 in 2010. It will cost them an extra £1 million in the next two years.
As well as recycling its waste food, Sainsbury’s also plans to recycle all of its 20,000 tons of non-food waste, including metal, plastic and paper packaging. From next year, Sainsbury’s intends to become the first leading British retailer not to send any waste to landfill sites.
Yes, I know Sainsbury’s is being very proactive and responsible. But please don’t throw out good food. I notice how the reduced food shelf always has a flock of people pushing each other out the way to grab a bargain. I hate to think of good food ending up at landfill or in an anaerobic digester plant.
You are right – Sainsburys Soup Kitchen first, elerctricity later. Still, I like the idea of powering the shops from their own waste.
I also hate the thought of good food going to waste, there must be a better alternative.
Really good though to recycle the non food waste.
Brilliant post, Ellee! I’ve often wondered why the local council couldn’t provide a sort of exchange network for stuff as there are many in need but rules and regs (elfen safety) often prevent that. However my parents local council do host a sort of exchange facility at the tip where you can take certain stuff and people don’t have to ferret around in skips (which they can’t – elfen safety). For example I know a perfectly good laser printer was thrown away simply because it was deemed too big but electrical goods are difficult to give away. And charities don’t take things like baby stuff as they have so much of it. But when it comes to food I think your idea is excellent. After all, if the network was set up then people would be more inclined to accept food from a supermarket, more so than anything but tinned goods from folk. Surely elfen safety would not be an issue then, whereas perishable goods from ordinary folk might be a problem?
its awful to see the amount of food that goes to waste at the tesco where i work… none of it is offered to the poor or starving, they are always too worried that someone will come back and try to sue tesco for poisoning them with out of date food…. sign of the times i am afraid to say and i wonder who is really to blame 🙂
Thanks Pip, yes, I think hungry bellies should come first, especially with the credit crunch. We had lots of food left over from my husband’s 50th birthday bash and I gave it to a sheltered housing scheme across the road. I just gave it to some residents I know who live there. They were very appreciative.
My father-in-law wanted to do the same and give left over food to an old people’s home in his neighbourhood, but was told he couldn’t because of H & S regulations.
Sally, I can understand left over waste food from supermarket cafes being processed for fuel, but not good food simply because it has passed a sell-by date and may still be ok to use. I always use my nose to guide me, and I’m still ok.
In fact, this begs another question. Why are supermarkets over stocking on perishable food? And vast amounts too if they can use it to generate light and heating.
Granted, edible food should not go to waste. But it is encouraging to see serious effort being devoted to converting garbage into energy.
Anyone who’s ever made compost for a garden knows that vegetable matter emits heat as it decomposes.
Garbage we have — and oil…? Well, we don’t have to buy our garbage from the Middle East.
I hope this idea succeeds and inspires.
Food wastage is the supermarket’s biggest problem, along with the packaging that can come with it.
I don’t think it is quite so simple Ellee. As Sally says these companies do not want to be sued and I’m afraid that smell is not good enough to tell whether something is still good enough for human consumption.
We had a lot of waste food stuff in the hospital where I worked too but once it had been to the wards, even if unopened, it had to be discarded.
I’m glad to see Sainsburys pulling their finger out and trying to make some use of their enormous waste. In Germany, supermarkets now have to recycle all the packaging materials that their customers bring back from the products that they purchase at the supermarket – which would give companies like Sainsburys another kick up the backside in the right direction.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
Letters from a Tory, yes I agree. Government would have been putting much more pressure on businesses in the past and not just householders, whose waste forms only a small part of the overall rubbish dumped at landfill.
I think all their recycling’s a great idea, but I’m with you on the desperate amount of food waste.
Long, long ago, when I was still a young nurse, all the waste food from the wards and dining halls was collected for local farmers to use as pigswill. Don’t suppose anything like that is allowed these days.
Dragonstar – what a good idea; if elfen safety prevent people from having the food then why not feed the pigs? if they allow it.
Ellee – I hope you won’t mind if I mention that pigs are often fed antibiotics from birth as a preventative measure. It all goes into the food chain. This gives rise to bacteria developing immunity. All this is allowed by elfen safety. Do you think we are over-regulated in a way that is proving to be a harmful?