Performance Overview

Sainsbury’s Supermarkets performance
Total waste (disposal + diversion) at Sainsbury’s Supermarkets decreased by 1.7 per cent during 2000/01. An increase of 16 per cent in plastic transit packaging recycling by stores contributed to this decline as did a decline in cardboard recycling of 4.7 per cent due to company policy to move to renewable plastic crates as the preferred transit packaging option for the supply chain. Food donation levels increased by 43 per cent from 1,633 tonnes to 2,343 tonnes and the scheme is set to expand further. Composting levels at Sainsbury’s Supermarkets have grown too, with 10 more stores joining the scheme giving a total of 56 stores. As a result, the amount of waste sent to landfill decreased slightly even though 27 new stores were added to the estate and a further 34 stores were extended.

Case Studies

Reducing waste in stores
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets has made good progress in driving the recycling message through to its stores and enthusing colleagues about the benefits of handling waste responsibly. Every store manager is credited for every tonne of plastic and cardboard transit packaging saved for recycling. This cash is used to the benefit of the store. A communications campaign to stores highlighting the environmental and financial benefits of recycling has been backed up by improvements in the waste collection network. Sainsbury’s Supermarkets now retains one national contractor instead of multiple contractors who then sub-contract locally. This has not only made the collection service more reliable but the contractor is obliged to provide Sainsbury’s Supermarkets with data so it knows how well it is progressing against its targets. The waste team launched an intranet site in spring 2001 where store managers can see their individual targets and learn more about recycling and composting initiatives. Another advance has been to appoint a recycling company in 2000, who is prepared to take plastic yoghurt and cream display trays. If each store saves these trays, in addition to the polythene and cardboard transit packaging they are already recycling, they will be able to reduce their waste to landfill by a further 4 per cent.

Composting trials
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets is expanding its composting trial in its efforts to find a viable alternative to sending waste to landfill sites. The urban trial in SE London, which includes its store at Greenwich, has been extended to include another 10 stores, giving 56 stores in total. The trial with the Organic Resource Agency in Berkshire, which takes waste from 27 Sainsbury’s Supermarkets stores in the area and turns it into compost on an organic farm, is showing that the balance of nutrients in the compost is comparable to commercial compost. Total tonnage sent for composting from Sainsbury’s Supermarkets stores is 930 tonnes including 345 tonnes from the urban trial, where material is collected from town stores (all other trials collect from stores nearer farms). A typical Sainsbury’s Supermarkets store in a composting trial is able to reduce its waste by between 20 and 51 per cent, depending on the type of composting outlet.

Food donation
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets has expanded its donation programme of good quality food, past its ‘display until’ date but not its ‘best before’ date, during 2000/01. Approximately 145 stores now donate to charities, such as Crisis FareShare. This includes food donations to the Salvation Army from 14 stores and this is being increased to more stores throughout the UK. Dry and canned goods are donated from two depots to GroceryAid, which distributes food to around 400 charity sites in the UK. In the calendar year 2000, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets donated products to a value of £91,718 to GroceryAid and some £5 million worth of food to various charities within 2000/01. We estimate that a Sainsbury’s Supermarkets store that is linked to a donation charity can reduce its waste by 9 per cent.

Equipment donation
In updating its colleague uniforms, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets sent the old uniforms (worth £1.2 million when new) to the Anoopam Mission in India, for use by communities living in the drought-affected areas in India. The uniforms were distributed in the town of Bhuju, which was at the epicentre of India’s recent earthquake. In addition, following a store closure, still useful but redundant equipment is given to charities. Last year, approximately £10,000 (second hand value) of refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, mops and ovens were donated to Crisis FareShare, Streetwise and Crash.

Recycling for customers
The trial of the specially designed ‘Inside out bag’, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets recycling carrier bag, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been extended for a further six months to evaluate recycling use further. The bag is available from two stores in the borough and allows customers to turn their Sainsbury’s Supermarkets free carrier bag inside out and use it for recycling using the doorstep recycling scheme.

Plastic milk bottle recycling
RECOUP’s programme to promote post-consumer plastic milk bottle recycling has made good progress in the first nine months of the two-year project. 10 recycling banks in the London Borough of Bromley and 10 in the Sevenoaks District Council area are sited in supermarket car parks, including eight at Sainsbury’s Supermarkets stores. Some 18.4 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected between July 2000 and March 2001 and the amount of recovered milk bottles is still increasing. That means that the RECOUP programme has prevented 368,000 plastic milk bottles from going to landfill.

Waste reduction in Shaw’s
Shaw’s has identified the top five suppliers whose products are regularly damaged in the warehouse. The suppliers have visited the warehouse and are making efforts to improve their packaging and reduce waste. Shaw’s is now measuring the savings for one year.

Recycling at Shaw’s
All Star Market stores now match Shaw’s in terms of back-of-store plastic and cardboard recycling facilities. Shaw’s now plans to bring its 19 Grand Union stores, acquired in 2000, up to the level achieved by Star and Shaw’s.