Each week, remaining food is collected at eight of Östersund’s grocery stores. The municipality then transports the food, around one ton of food a week, to a waste facility. There it is packed and then ends up in a completely newly built biogas plant.
The food then ends up in a nearby completely newly built biogas plant where a digestion process in various steps is carried out together with food waste from the private households in the municipality.
Becomes liquid biogas in six weeks
One and a half months later, the food has instead become liquid biogas ready to refuel vehicles.
– This we think is much better than the alternative, that the food goes to incineration and fired and ends up in the atmosphere, says Jon Isaksson, Head of Unit at Östersund Municipality.
But it is okay that it is the municipality that makes this packaging of the food. Shouldn’t the grocery stores themselves do it?
– Well, this responsibility is actually at the grocery stores, but we have chosen to offer this as a service, says Jon Isaksson.
Even more importantly reduce food waste
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency thinks it is positive with biogas production of remaining food, but at the same time points out that it is even more important to greatly reduce food waste itself.
– When you produce food, it is very resource -intensive. A lot of energy, water and pesticides are consumed. If you then throw away the food, it means that all the resources you put in are lost, says Christina Anderzen, administrator at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
The project where the municipality fetches the remaining food from the grocery stores will continue until the summer and will then be evaluated.