Sainsbury's to send unsold food to UK biomass plant

The UK's third largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's Supermarkets, announced plans today to use its unsold food in Scotland to power a biomass plant near Motherwell, about 15 miles southeast of Glasgow.

The chain's 28 stores in Scotland send 42 metric tons of waste to landfills each week. The effort would divert the waste and produce enough power for a town the size of Inverness, which has a population over more than 50,000. The chain said each metric ton could power 500 homes.

Sainsbury's is owned by London, England-based J. Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY). The company's stock was down more than 2 percent at the close of trading today.

Sainsbury's announced the plans at the Zero Waste conference in Edinburgh today. The effort will be rolled out in Scottish stores this month, with stores throughout the UK diverting unsold food to biomass plants by the summer.

The chain plans to stop sending food waste to landfills by summer and any waste by the end of the year.

Last year, Cheshunt, England-based Tesco (LON: TSCO), the world's third largest grocer, said it planed to power one of its UK distribution centers using straw power (see Tesco to build straw-powered CHP plant). The £12 million combined heat and power plant was expected to have a capacity of 5 megawatts.

The UK has long been criticized for its food waste. A report last year from the government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme showed that 6.7 million metric tons of food is thrown out in the UK each year, half of which is food that is unopened or untouched (see Food waste costing billions in the U.K.).

The wasted food results in 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide being emitted each year, the group says.

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