Under the deal, Marks & Spencer (M&S) will purchase 19,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity every year from the plant enough to power 33 M&S Simply Food stores.
M&S currently sends food waste from all of its Scottish stores to the Cumbernauld facility, which is operated under a joint venture with AD specialist Energen Biogas. The food waste is converted into biogas for renewable energy and digestate, which can be used as a soil conditioner. By purchasing the electricity the retailer said it is helping close the loop for its food waste.
Commenting on the agreement, Ian Goodfellow, UK managing director at Shanks, said: M&S is a pioneer in responsible business practices and we are delighted to enter into this agreement with them. They have a firm commitment to sustainable waste management and utilising green energy and this agreement will take full advantage of our state-of-the-art AD plant in Cumbernauld. Not only does this reinforce our strategy to make more from waste, it also reflects Shanks strong and growing presence in organics recycling and recovery.
Sustainable
Giacinto Patellaro, head of energy supply and risk at M&S, said: Were delighted to sign this Power Purchase Agreement with Shanks and Energen Biogas. Having advocated the use of AD technology since the launch of our sustainability programme, Plan A, back in 2007, were now seeing in practice how the plant at Cumbernauld is helping M&S to maintain two of our targets: to procure 100% renewable electricity and send zero waste to landfill.
M&S is aiming to become the worlds most sustainable retailer by 2015, under its Plan A initiative which it launched in 2007. The initiative set out 180 commitments, including sending zero waste to landfill. Since then it has achieved zero waste to landfill and 89% of its food waste to composting or anaerobic digestion facilities.
Facility
The 8 million AD facility in Cumbernauld was opened in October 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story). It has the capacity to treat up to 60,000 tonnes of food waste every year, producing 22,000MWh of electricity. Whilst the majority of electricity will be sent to M&S, the remaining 10% is used on-site.
Feedstock for the facility comes from a number of supermarkets and businesses in Scotland including Glasgow Airport, Strathclyde University and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Shanks said it is looking to strengthen its market position in organics recycling. The firm is currently building a 48,000 tonne-a-year capacity AD plant at Westcott Venture Park, near Bicester in Oxfordshire (see letsrecycle.com story). It has also submitted a planning application to Torfaen county borough council for a 90,000tpa AD plant at its existing site at Pontypool in South Wales.
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