Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland is set to become the first large supermarket in the UK and Ireland to establish a circular economy strategy, helping to fuel its logistics chain using food waste from its 209 stores on the island. “This circular economy strategy across the island underlines our commitment to developing sustainable and innovative solutions that will have a tangible impact in every area of our business,” said J.P. Scally, CEO of Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland.
In the Republic, Lidl is building on their longstanding partnership with Trim-based Food Surplus Management (FSM), who will collect the retailer’s food waste and customer’s recycling deposits directly from their stores and three regional distribution centers. The food waste will then be converted to biomethane and used to fuel the Scania truck fleet responsible for collecting such waste from Lidl’s stores across the country, reducing carbon emission per truck by up to 93%.
Regarding Northern Ireland, the biomethane will be generated using food waste collected from all 41 Lidl Northern Ireland stores, in major partnership with McCulla Ireland, leading providers of ambient, chilled and frozen logistics solutions. The fleet includes eight IVECO S-WAY 4×2 trucks, supplied by NI Trucks, powered by biomethane. This marks the first significant business integration between the transport and retail sector in Northern Ireland and represents a major step forward for the country in its move to slash carbon emissions.
In the coming weeks, McCulla will start to create fully renewable natural gas at its anaerobic digester (AD) plant in Lisburn to power a sustainable, next generation transport operation, which then delivers produce to Lidl stores across Northern Ireland every day.
“In addition, we are pleased to work with two long-standing local suppliers, Food Surplus Management and McCulla Transport, in developing this first-to-market approach, and to be the first large supermarket retailer to successfully integrate a waste-to-energy sustainable transport model. These fleets cover nearly 6,000 road kilometers per day across both regions, ensuring the safe and timely delivery of food to our stores in Northern Ireland and collection of waste from our store network across the Republic of Ireland. We’re proud to pave the way for the sector, and for Ireland and Northern Ireland in driving,” added Scally
Source: Lidl
