JD Wetherspoon aims to stop all food waste going to landfill

Major UK pub company JD Wetherspoon has signed an agreement with Veolia in a bid to increase the company’s food recycling.

Resource management company Veolia has been appointed to increase J D Wetherspoon’s recycling and divert all its food waste from landfill. The company’s food waste stream will be used to produce green energy through anaerobic digestion.

According to a statement, Veolia’s food and coffee ground recycling scheme will result in approximately 11,500 tonnes of food waste avoiding landfill while also providing 3,450MWh of renewable energy each year.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, regulations are in place that require food waste to be collected separately for anaerobic digestion. However, this is not the case in England, with much of the country’s food waste going to landfill.

Veolia’s contract covers the entire JD Wetherspoon estate, consisting of approximately 900 pubs, hotels and bars.

“Wetherspoon is committed to leading the hospitality industry into a sustainable future. In line with our work with the Sustainable Restaurants’ Association, we take very seriously our commitment to minimise waste and opting for recycling wherever possible,” said David Willis, Wetherspoon’s contractor performance manager.
 
“We are pleased to highlight our commitment to a genuinely sustainable future by entering into partnership with Veolia UK for the management of our general waste, food waste and glass recycling. We are proud to announce our goal of zero waste being sent to landfill by the end of 2018, a target that we are well on the way to achieving.”

“In addition we are also continuing to innovate in partnership with Veolia UK to enable wider use of our recyclable products, increasing the amount of sundry items that are manufactured from recycled products such as drinks trays or garden furniture.”