Tesco has reached another milestone in its drive to go green by diverting 100% of its UK waste away from landfill.
Europe’s biggest retailer generates about 531,000 tons of waste each year, the weight of 75,000 double-decker buses.
About 385,000 tons of that waste is recycled, leaving 146,000 tons that would normally go to landfill.
By making use of technology, however, Tesco has been able to achieve its goal of diverting all waste away from landfill a year ahead of schedule.
The supermarket is, for example, using its unsold meat to generate energy. Products past their sell-by date are sealed and frozen before being taken to one of 11 recycling service units at Tesco’s distribution centres. The meat is then moved in chilled containers to a biomass power plant run by a waste-management company. The waste is incinerated, heating the boilers that drive generator turbines.
It is one of several initiatives that Tesco, Britain’s biggest private-sector employer, is undertaking to reduce waste. It also turns recycled carrier bags into refuse sacks and delivers and displays products in reusable plastic trays, saving 20,000 tons of cardboard.