Ireland-headed ABP Food Group has announced that its renewables division, Olleco, one of the UK’s largest distributors of cooking oils and food waste collectors has commissioned a 15 MW anaerobic digestion facility in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK. With a capacity to treat 100 000 tonnes of food waste annually, the plant is located adjacent to the Arla dairy, allowing it to become a zero carbon milk processing facility.
Olleco, the renewables division of ABP Food Group, collects waste food and cooking oil from the retail and food service sector and converts this waste into biodiesel, biogas, and biofertilizer.
This state-of-the-art Olleco facility will convert in excess of 100 000 tonnes of waste into heat, power, and biomethane for export to the national grid, and biofertiliser for both of ABP Food Group’s and Arla’s farmer suppliers said Robert Behan, Managing Director of Olleco in a statement.
Representing an investment of GBP 22 million (≈ EUR 24.6 million) by ABP Food Group, the new facility, is an “excellent example of the circular economy in action”, with multiple supply chain partners working together to deliver a truly sustainable outcome.
Sustainability is a key priority right across the ABP Food Group. The company has invested and implemented innovative sustainability measures that are world class, trailblazing and meet the exceptionally high targets – to reduce the environmental footprint of our business – we have set ourselves, Behan explained.
The Aylesbury plant has recently successfully achieved the ISO accreditations – 9001 and 14001 respectively, which according to ABP Food Group, is “evidence that Olleco is committed to operating an ethical and sustainable business; putting our customers and the environment at the forefront of everything we do”.
In 2015 the company opened the world’s first certified carbon-neutral abattoir in Ellesmere where waste material from the food processing operation is used in conjunction with used cooking oil (UCO) to provide the energy requirements on site.
Earlier this year, ABP achieved triple accreditation from The Carbon Trust for the third consecutive year and is one of only a handful of companies to have achieved such accreditation.
