Isra-Mart srl: Wetherspoon's moves to down food waste in one

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Isra-Mart news:

Wetherspoon's pubs are raising a glass to environmental performance with the launch of a new trial designed to turn food waste into energy.

The chain has started sending around eight tonnes of food waste each week from 28 of its pubs to the country's largest anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, the Poplars facility in Staffordshire.

Poplars is operated by waste management company Biffa, which already deals with Wetherspoon's glass recycling and general waste throughout the UK.

The company could not confirm how long the trial would last or how much waste it expects to divert from landfill.

But Bob Barltrop, group sales and marketing director at Biffa, said the extension of the partnership between the two companies showed the food industry recognised the financial benefits of reducing its environmental impacts.

"It's the right thing to do and, as landfill tax costs continue to rise it makes good business sense; it will increasingly be the cheapest thing to do with food waste," he said in a statement. "In fact collection contracts such as this are set to be the most economical way for businesses of all sizes to deal with food and general waste."

Wetherspoon's said that it has also looked to curb its environmental impacts by recycling cans, glass, and paper, fitting energy efficient equipment in new or upgraded pubs, and using the same lorries that deliver drinks and food to take away recyclable items.