ReFood’s environmentally-friendly solution has not only eliminated food waste ending in landfill, but has helped slash Marmaduke’s waste management costs and also means it is having a hand in lighting homes via the National Gas Grid.
With best-in-class produce sitting at its heart – from Wildfarmed flour, direct trade speciality beans and even cleaning products chosen for their green credentials – the food service business wanted to address an oft-overlooked area: the unavoidable food waste that arises from daily operations.
Be this shells, bones and gristle, spoiled produce or plate scrapings, waste is common in food service, but its environmental consequences are significant. And with no solution to manage this waste, the vast majority ends up in the residual waste stream and, by proxy, landfill.
Rethinking food waste
Enter ReFood and its environmentally friendly AD solution.
Working with cafés, restaurants, hotels and other food businesses across the UK, ReFood collects more than 400,000 tonnes of waste every year, recycling it to create renewable energy and biofertiliser at its anaerobic digestion (AD) sites in Dagenham, Doncaster and Widnes.
The AD process captures biogas produced during the natural degradation of food.
This biogas can be combusted to produce renewable electricity, or further processed and injected directly into the National Gas Grid.
The leftover residue from the AD process can be used as an accredited nutrient-rich biofertilizer, reintroducing beneficial nutrients back into the beginning of the food supply chain.
