Feb 22 2011
Most of the waste from Hemköp, Willys and PrisXtra will be used as raw material either for the recycling industry or energy production.
All waste will be carefully sorted into different fractions, collected and then transported to plastic manufacturers, paper mills, the metals industry or biogas plants.
Axfood has signed an agreement with the recycling companies HA, Ragn-Sells and Stena, which together will take care of the handling of all types of waste from Axfood stores across Sweden.
"From now on we view waste as a resource," comments Anders Strålman, President and CEO of Axfood.
Axfood handles large flows of materials and food. This handling generates various types of waste, such as biological waste, plastic, corrugated board, and so on. There are great benefits – both environmental and financial – to handling these flows efficiently. A large share of this waste can be recycled, which means that waste has a market value as raw material.
What is required is that stores sort their waste properly and that a system is in place to transport the various fractions to the right location. This is what Axfood and the three waste management contractors will be doing now.
Plastic and corrugated board are the fractions that are easiest to sell as raw material. Biological waste can be used to make biogas, provided that there are plants that can accept the waste in the respective municipalities.
"Some municipalities have such plants in place, so that food waste can be used to make biogas," says Strålman. "Unfortunately, too many municipalities are lagging behind when it comes to building biogas plants. This creates problems for us. It is indefensible to require long transports of waste – it should be taken care of locally."