Waitrose Achieves Zero Food Waste to Landfill Ahead of Schedule

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October 25, 2012

Waitrose has achieved its goal of sending zero food waste to landfill, with the announcement this week that all of its 280 U.K. stores will send food waste unfit for consumption to recycling.

The grocer has achieved its goal three months ahead of schedule. Waitrose was the first supermarket in the U.K. to send food waste to Anaerobic Digestion (AD) in 2008 through its award winning partnership with Cawleys, a Luton-based resource management company.

The move follows Waitrose announcement in July this year that it is allowing stores to donate surplus food within their local communities by the end of this year.

“Of course it’s not in our interest to produce any food waste at all, which is why we work hard to minimize it in the first instance,” said Mike Walters, recycling and waste manager for Waitrose. “Inevitably we generate some surplus food, and where it is not fit to be donated to the local community, AD has proven to be a sustainable way of eliminating the need to send it to landfill, reducing our impact on the environment and creating renewable energy along the way. It is an exciting time for the company as we extend our work with Cawleys to our remaining U.K. shops, helping us achieve our target of zero food to landfill.”

Cawleys, which was the first waste management company in Britain to offer a commercial food waste recycling service to AD, will continue to utilize AD as a sustainable alternative to landfill for all Waitrose stores in the U.K., alongside the use of In Vessel Composting (IVC) where AD is not an option.

Working with the wider John Lewis Partnership, which own John Lewis and Waitrose, Cawleys also manages food waste for John Lewis stores.

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