Annually, South Yorkshire-based PDM's plant at Widnes uses more than 230,000 tonnes of biomass fuels derived from food wastes and other bio-wastes to generate renewable combined heat and power.
PDM currently recycles all Tesco's meat waste and the two have previously teamed up to help the supermarket giant reach its target of diverting 100% of its waste from landfill – an objective it met in July 2009.
Robert Ratcliffe, director of the PDM Group, said that agreements such as this offered large energy users an alternative to sourcing renewable energy from the grid.
“Using green power is becoming an important objective for many businesses, however it's extremely rare that such power can come directly from anywhere other than the National Grid,” he said.
“This type of closed-loop biomass-to-energy relationship is rare in the UK and it's great that we can work together to not only help bolster green credentials, but also enable Tesco to demonstrate that any food waste it generates is essentially helping to power its own supply chain.”
Deal
The plant will be taking food in from a number of retailers as well as Tesco under an agreement between PDM and logistics company Stobart Group, better known as Eddie Stobarts. The haulage company said it would offer its food retailer customers a “sustainable recycling service” for food waste.
Stobart said that its vehicles would haul the food to Widnes, which meant fewer specific waste collections and fewer lorries on the road.
Tesco said it had leased the new 528,000 square foot sustainable distribution centre to provide increased capacity to service its network of stores in the North West.
Juliette Bishop, corporate affairs manager at Tesco said the project was in line with the company's sustainability targets, which last month saw the supermarket giant introduce 'Buy One Get One Free Later' offers in a bid to help its customers cut down on food waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
“It's great that we can demonstrate that our food waste is directly providing power back into our operations, helping us to reduce waste going to landfill and our carbon footprint,” she said.
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