Leading sustainable waste management firm Biffa has joined forces with Olio, an innovative food-sharing app, to offer same-day local food redistribution as part of its existing suite of surplus redistribution and sustainable waste management solutions.
In the UK, billions of potential meals are binned annually, whilst 11.3 million people struggle to put food on the table.
Biffa’s new collaboration with Olio provides retail and hospitality businesses a unique chance to transform their on-site surplus food into meaningful support for nearby communities.
This partnership complements Biffa’s wider surplus redistribution offering, which includes commercial redistributor Company Shop Group, acquired by Biffa in 2021.
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An initial trial across 25 sites at Nando’s, Caffè Nero and Nisa has already shown impressive results.The new service allows any edible surplus food remaining at day’s end to be shared with the community when shops, sites or restaurants close.
The process is straightforward – staff simply set aside unsold or uneaten food at the end of the working day for Olio volunteers (known as Food Waste Heroes) to collect.Volunteers then take the food home and upload it to Olio’s app, allowing nearby residents to request and collect it.
Typically, food finds a new home in as little as 30 minutes.
This addition rounds out Biffa’s end-to-end food management model, with solutions for same-day redistribution by Olio complemented by Company Shop Group and regular scheduled waste and recycling collections by Biffa.
Biffa customers can now access Olio’s volunteer network through a single partnership – the latest step in the company’s mission to enable the circular economy in the UK and prevent surplus food from becoming waste.
Businesses can also monitor the impact of their Olio food donations on the local community via Olio’s Partner Hub, including the number of meals rescued, water saved, and emissions avoided through redistributed food.
Amy Hooper, Innovation Manager, Biffa, said: “We’re constantly looking for innovative ways to prevent surplus food from becoming waste in the first place in our mission to enable the UK’s circular economy by reducing waste.”
“It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Olio, and we are so excited to be launching this partnership.
“By joining forces, our unique collaboration enables us to move more food up the waste hierarchy than ever before, helping our customers hit their sustainability goals while saving them money by reducing food waste.
“What sets this initiative apart is that businesses can tackle same-day food surplus, track the positive impact of their contribution, and access end-to-end food surplus and waste management solutions all in one place.
“Along with Company Shop Group as part of the wider Biffa group, customers will have access to a great range of options to manage their food waste and surplus sustainably with tangible social impact tracking.”
Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder and COO of Olio, added: “We’re so proud to announce our new partnership with Biffa, which is the first of its kind in the commercial waste management sector.
“Together, we’re able to reduce the weight of good, edible food ending up in Biffa bins, and make sure it feeds local families instead.
“Olio and Biffa are 100% aligned on our mission to build a future without waste, and we’ve been really encouraged to see the results from our trials across Caffè Nero, Nando’s and Nisa locations over the past 12 months.
“We’re incredibly grateful to the whole team at Biffa, store staff at our trial locations, and Olio’s volunteers for getting our partnership off to such a flying start.”
Success stories: The partnership in action
The Biffa-Olio partnership has already seen successful trials with major brands like Caffè Nero, Nando’s and Nisa, with all three businesses reporting positive results.
When asked how they found the trial, one store manager at Nisa said:
“We are loving Olio. The volunteers are brilliant, the food is going out to the local community and it’s making me so proud to be able to help others. I definitely want to continue once the pilot is over.”
Tim Norton, Trials Manager at Nisa, said: “Cutting food waste is a big priority issue to overcome for independent retailers so it is pleasing to see that the initial trial period with Biffa and Olio has been a success. We look forward to working with them heading into 2025 to bring continued benefits for our independent retailers.”
A trial conducted across 25 sites in 2023 and 2024 yielded impressive results, with 54kg of food rescued, providing 7,197 meals for local residents, conserving 2,258 litres of water and averting 3,739kg of carbon emissions.
Olio’s volunteers undergo comprehensive food safety training as part of their app onboarding, allowing Biffa clients to confidently donate any type of food – including cooked, chilled and frozen items – as well as ambient grocery products.
Biffa’s commitment to large-scale social impactPartnering with Olio to share surplus food on the same day is Biffa’s latest initiative to integrate meaningful social impact into its business model and mission to strengthen the UK’s circular economy.
In 2021, Biffa acquired Company Shop Group, the UK’s leading surplus redistributor. The Group supports over 800 UK businesses in redistributing surplus products and transforms imperfect items with incorrect labelling or damaged packaging into perfectly saleable goods, which are then sold through its network of Company Shop ‘surplus supermarkets’.
The Group also redistributes surplus through its award-winning social enterprise, Community Shop, a not-for-profit organisation tackling the root causes of food insecurity in some of the UK’s most deprived areas.
With 13 stores nationwide, it provides thousands of families access to heavily discounted food and essentials, as well as life-changing development programmes.
