We offer our retail partners a value-for-money waste management service, while addressing our own goals of increasing waste recovery, diverting waste from landfill and thereby reducing carbon emissions.

We are also committed to maintaining an exemplary waste data management and record-keeping system. Successful initiatives include:

• regional ‘one-stop-shop’ waste management contracts. Initiated in 2002 the contracts ensure that our premises and our retail partners achieve cost-effective rates for recycling and waste management for the full range of waste types generated by our business
• our food recovery programme, through which 95 per cent of all food collected is recovered for the pet food, animal food and bio-diesel industries
• packaging needs assessments for all our products
• technical evaluation to ‘traffic light’ packaging on individual products
• increasing access to recycling facilities for consumers at our stores
• encouraging and supporting our retailer partners in setting up their own initiatives.

The results in waste management in particular have been impressive. Between 2002 and 2007 we increased the amount of waste diverted from landfill by 20 per cent - a decrease of 2,500 tonnes landfilled. 2006 and 2007 also witnessed further growth of our ‘one-stop-shop’ waste management contracts. We increased the total amount of waste handled under the contracts from 3,989 tonnes in 2002 (for 112 participating premises) to more than 27,000 tonnes by the end of 2007 (316 participating premises).

The average monthly tonnage of waste generated per facility participating in the one-stop-shop waste contract reduced from 7.7 tonnes in 2006 to 7.4 tonnes in 2007. And since 2002 we have seen even more significant decreases in the waste generated, from 97g per unit turnover in 2002 to 61g in 2007.

Our overall landfill diversion rate for our one-stop-shop waste contracts delivered a recycling rate a full 2.8 points above the corporate target. This related to improved waste management practices and the introduction of our biowaste diversion programme.