Press Releases

TESCO DIVERTS 100 PER CENT WASTE FROM LANDFILL AHEAD OF TARGET

03 August 2009

Tesco, the UK’s biggest retailer and private sector employer, is diverting 100 per cent of waste produced by its entire UK business away from landfill.

As a result of a massive logistical exercise in reducing, reusing and recycling, as well as seeking out the best providers of waste management services, Tesco has achieved its target of 100 per cent diversion almost a year ahead of target.

Methane gas from landfill sites is significantly more damaging to the environment than carbon emissions and three years ago Tesco committed to find ways of diverting all of its waste from landfill by 2010. This week, its entire estate of 2,315 UK stores as well as distribution centres and offices have achieved that goal. There are no official targets for commercial businesses, although the Government has told local authorities to reduce by 45 per cent the waste they send to landfill by 2020 against 2000 volumes.

Tesco executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe said: ‘Climate change is the biggest challenge facing us today and businesses such as Tesco have a responsibility to provide leadership.

 ‘Tesco understands the value of developing new technology, which is why we helped launch the Sustainable Consumption Institute with a grant of £25m last year.  As well as research and development, improving our own operations and helping customers to make easy, green choices are the best way to combat climate change.’

New technologies such as innovative ways of turning waste into materials such as fuel and fertilizer have enabled Tesco to achieve its diversion target early with support from its waste services partner, Severnside Recycling.

Technology now enables waste to be managed with increased sophistication. The maximum amount of recyclable materials is recovered from the waste, reducing the carbon footprint of future product lifecycles. The alternative energy that waste can produce may allow the UK to depend less on fossil fuels in the future.

Examples of how Tesco waste is treated are:
• Re-using waste meat to generate fuel through a third-party plant which goes back into the national grid as electricity – at present, 5,000 tonnes of waste meat generate c. 2,500 mega watt hours of renewable electricity.
• Turning recycled carrier bags into refuse bags
• Recycling used cardboard boxes to make new ones which are returned to store with new products within 14 days.
• Waste from the south east of England is transformed into Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) through a third-party plant.

For further information please contact Tesco Press Office on 01992 644 645 or 01992 644 733 out of hours, selecting option 2 to page a duty press officer.

Notes to editors
• *The six main technologies used in delivering the goal of 100 per cent diversion from landfill are: material recovery facilities (MRF); in vessel composting (IVC); anaerobic digestion (AD); mechanical biological treatment ((MBT); mechanical heat treatment (MHT) and energy from waste (EfW).
• Tesco generates 531,000 tonnes of waste per year in the UK, of which 385,000 tonnes are sent for recycling. The remaining 146,000 tonnes is diverted from landfill and sent instead to be dealt with by one of the technologies listed above.
• Tesco’s waste management partner Severnside Recycling supports the diversion from landfill programme by helping to source alternative technology suppliers.
• Tesco also works with PDM, sending meat waste to its biomass-to-energy plants. Tesco is supplying energy to customers in an established venture, recycling all meat waste into heat and electricity. More than 5,000 tonnes of out-of-date meat are generating 2,500 Mega Watt Hours of renewable energy each year - enough to power more than 600 homes for a year.
• Tesco waste from the south east is also transformed into a SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) via Shanks. Shanks uses mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants to convert the waste into a fuel product.  Shanks operate a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) within the plant to recover the recyclable materials.  The SRF has about 80% of the calorific value of coal, making it an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels.
• Wherever possible, Tesco looks to treat waste locally to stores and distribution centres.