Green technologies
Saving electricity and water
In 2010 we invested £2 million in green technologies at our Lincoln site to reduce resource usage and minimise waste. We upgraded our water treatment plant to enable it to recycle the water we use on site and we built an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant that turns outgrade potatoes and vegetable waste from our Prepared foods factory into clean ‘green' electricity.
It was an important business as well as environmental decision, and is delivering savings of over 40% on electricity and 60% on water at the site. Plus, there's the added green benefit of taking one LGV load of outgrade potatoes off the road each day.
Our AD plant generates around 300kW of electricity - all from organic waste produced on site - making us one of the first UK food producers to harness such innovative technology. The plant is safe, quiet, odourless and, most importantly, incredibly efficient.
Meanwhile, our water recycling plant, which we worked on in conjunction with the Environment Agency, recycles the water we use to wash our potatoes and the water extracted by the AD plant (after all, potatoes are around 80% water). It proved so successful at Lincoln that we've also built a similar facility at our site in the South West.
