Southwold/ Stradbroke: Bio Group agrees waste deal with Skinner’s Pet Foods

TWO Suffolk businesses have joined forces to turn food waste into “green” energy.

Bio Group, which operates the Adnams Bio Energy facility near Southwold, has entered into an agreement with Skinner’s Pet Foods, which manufacturers dry dog foods at Stradbroke, near Eye.

The deal means that more than half of a tonne of food waste from the Skinner’s plant each week will be converted by Bio Group, through a process known as anaerobic digestion, into biomethane for supply to the national grid.

“Adnams Bio Energy uses food waste from businesses across Suffolk,” said Adam Bensusan, commercial manager at Bio Group.

“We are delighted to be working with such a respected and successful business as Skinner’s to remove their food waste. This is enabling them to meet their environmental responsibilities and reduce their costs,” he added.

Skinner’s, which has a staff of about 40, uses an extruder process in the production of its dry foods to create a uniform finished product.

Robert Marshall, quality assurance and health and safety manager at Skinner’s, said: “Although we are always trying to reduce the amount of waste, at the start of a production run a small amount of extruded product is too wet and would not meet our high standards.

“That’s where Bio Group comes in; following our agreement with Adam and his team, we see it being used for anaerobic digestion.

“This not only reduces our costs by around 20%, which helps us in continuing to sell a good value, high quality product. It also reduces our carbon footprint, which is a great deal all round.”

Besides the Southwold plant, Bio Group is working on a new facility in Stockport, near Manchester, and is planning to announce further projects around the UK this year.