Asda Bootle: Green Grand Design

Fire_Fox

Interesting article in Asda's freebie magazine regarding their new store in Bootle which apparently produces 50% less carbon than the average supermarket. Lower electricity bills and no landfill - if replicated in Asda stores nationwide will the savings be passed on to the customer?

Ken68

Maybe they compost and gasify their out of date fruit and veg, and do you suppose the loos are connected to the same system, and perhaps they save the water run off from the car parks into a rainwater harvesting set up. And wouldn't the environment gain even more with online shopping, so the same store could become a warehouse (minus the car park), with a just a few vans supplying a huge area.
It's the future.

Fire_Fox

The article doesn't say how they manage to reduce their landfill to nothing, other than it's all composted, reused or recycled. It's quite tough to recycle all your plastics as there are so many different types, but they have obviously found a way. And what about things like polestyrene trays for meat?

I don't think I will ever switch over to all online shopping. It's a pain in the rear waiting in for deliveries, and not possible to park outside my city centre flat during rush hours. The one time I did shop online we got tons of carrier bags. With food I don't like not being able to see exactly what I am buying - Mr. Fire Fox likes marbled meat as he is a chef, I like hardly any fat as I work in healthcare!! :rolleyes:

Better public transport is the answer - our local bus company have switched over to bio-fuel. But there is only a bus half hourly from the nearest Tesco to my flat, and with the bus from Asda you have to walk for a few minutes at either end. No problem on the way there but not possible with heavy bags (for life!). So at present I have to get a taxi home! :mad:

A_fiend_for_life

Are they incinerating maybe?

It would be good if they provided fuller information on the store for feedback after all some parts of the system will be saving them money.

Ken68

Have been researching local online shopping, same price for delivery as the taxi there and back.
Agree not the same, the need to get out and about is important and the bus is free.

Fire_Fox

"ASDA and Veolia Environmental Services are celebrating after unveiling the UK's first zero waste to landfill store in Bootle, Merseyside.

The "low carbon" store, which opened in October last year, previously diverted 99% of its operational waste away from landfill. However, following the removal of the store's waste compactor, the supermarket has pledged to go even further and will stop sending the remaining 1% of its food, recycling and general store waste produced at the store to landfill - the highest level of landfill diversion of any supermarket store to date.

Instead, the supermarket will segregate any waste that is produced (including food waste, dry-recyclables and non-recyclable material) so that it can be sent via ASDA's fleet of delivery trucks to its purpose-built recycling centre in Skelmersdale, where the material will be consolidated. Where appropriate, Veolia will then manage the recycling of materials or reprocessing to create green energy.

The announcement is the latest in a line of initiatives introduced by ASDA to reduce its carbon footprint by driving efficiency across its business.

ASDA, which has already committed to send zero waste to landfill from its existing chain of stores and depots by the end of 2010, currently diverts more than 65% of its operational waste from landfill sites. It also recycles more than 150,000 tonnes of cardboard and nearly 9,000 tonnes of plastic waste each year through its seven recycling centres across the UK.

Julian Walker-Palin, Head of ASDA's Sustainability Policy, said "This is a major step towards ensuring that we reach our goal of sending zero waste to landfill by the end of the 2010.

"Not only will our commitment have a huge impact on the environment, it will also save us money which we can plough back into lowering prices for our customers, whilst proving to the rest of the industry that it can be done. We certainly hope that other retailers will follow our lead so that together we can consign landfill sites to the history books."

Tom Spaul, Chief Operating Officer of Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Plc said: "We have been working with ASDA very closely on their sustainability strategy of zero waste to landfill. As a result we can now jointly announce that ASDA Bootle is the first UK supermarket to divert 100% of waste from landfill and no longer requires a compactor.

"This model will take ASDA to zero waste to landfill by the end of 2010. The progress made by ASDA and ourselves clearly demonstrates our strong working relationship and respective ability to lead on environmental initiatives that will inevitably shape the future."
http://www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk/html/newsArticle.asp?NewsID=1011

Fire_Fox

"The 39,000ft supermarket has seen a £27 million investment and features a number of ground-breaking technological innovations that has already been marked for future stores, including sun pipes and full fridge doors on a majority of chilled produce, a UK retailing first. As a result of these and other innovations, there is a forty per cent energy saving than a standard store and carbon emissions have been slashed in half compared to ASDA’s 2005 model. The store has been rated an “exemplar scheme” by the Carbon Trust.
Highlights of ASDA Bootle include:

• Installation of full fridge doors halve the volume of refrigerant gas in the store’s systems, which equates to 140 tonnes of CO2 saved and spells the end of chattering teeth in the yoghurt and fruit juice aisles, as the doors will naturally make those areas warmer. Saving 8 per cent of the Bootle store’s total energy bill, ASDA is now also trialling full fridge doors on selected chilled produce across eight stores in the North West.
• All heat produced by the store is recycled and used as opposed to being wasted by escaping into the atmosphere. ASDA has implemented innovative linking components such as a ground source heat pump, heat reclaim and a biomass boiler.
• Diverting 95 per cent of its operational waste from landfill from the day of opening, the remaining 5 per cent only comprises those materials that are non-recyclable.
• All colleague areas, as well as the customer restaurant, also capture waste streams for recycling, including drink cans and bottles. A series of different bins and coloured bags will be installed in-store to segregate the waste, the majority of which then goes to ASDA’s recycling centre in Skelmersdale. At Skelmersdale, the cardboard and plastic is baled and sent on for recycling and the biodegradable elements are used as a solid fuel to create electricity.
• Visually, the Bootle eco-store will look very different from a standard supermarket. The FSC-approved timber framed building is clad with FSC-approved timber and has been built using reclaimed brick sourced from Liverpool’s docks two miles from the store’s location.
• The roof is made from recycled aluminium foil with recycled plastic bags making up the kerbs in the store’s car park.
• Extensive use of natural lighting at the store includes sun pipes, a kalwall and north lights.
• A grass “sedum” roof over the store’s warehouse will become a haven for insects and wildlife as well as providing better insulation and improved water retention. The external landscape will also use locally sourced plants and trees that require less watering."

http://www.carbonneutraltourism.co.uk/asda-bootle

Ben84

Fire_Fox wrote: »

The article doesn't say how they manage to reduce their landfill to nothing, other than it's all composted, reused or recycled. It's quite tough to recycle all your plastics as there are so many different types, but they have obviously found a way. And what about things like polestyrene trays for meat?

But these are thrown away by the consumer, not the store. I suspect most of the waste generated by supermarkets is from the single use packaging that we take hope with us and dispose of at home, and not actually from supermarket site itself.

The numbers are impressive, the energy savings are significant when you consider all the supermarkets in the country. It's good that these things are being considered, even if not commonplace yet, but it still feels like yet another complex solution to a simple problem.

Not so long ago everything was bought from local shops and street markets, without piles of plastic that can't be recycled, without hundreds of light bulbs to light it, and without endless isles of frozen everything consuming electric 24/7 and needing a enormous fleet of freezer vans to transport it. I'm not protesting about frozen food entirely, I like icecream! It's just when did we start needing frozen chips, or mashed potato, and in fact when did we need ready made ice cubes?!

It's going to be very hard for supermarkets to improve their environmental impact and reach the same standards as other retailers. Much of the packaging will have to go, taking with it the labels, branding, bar codes and many of the things that encourage us to buy it and make it easy to sell in a supermarket environment. A lot of the ready made products would have to go too, and these are the ones where they make so much profit and attract so many consumers. I'm not convinced you can turn the supermarket concept 'green' and still retain the business advantages as well.

I can see how in the future shopping at eco-stores will be the big thing, with great promises of reducing your environmental impact, but it might just be obscuring that supermarkets are still worse than shopping elsewhere.

greenbee

Zero landfill, but I see they are still using incineration (albeit waste-to-power) which has it's own problems. Hopefully they will make a commitment to start reducing the non-recyclables.

Don't forget to leave your excess packaging behind, so that it adds to the store's figures, not your domestic ones!