As the UK gears up for another season of festive feasting, the nation is also heading towards the largest spike in food waste of the year. Two million turkeys, seven million mince pies and 17 million Brussels sprouts make up just part of the estimated 230,000 tonnes of food wasted over the Christmas season.
Despite a change in attitudes and legislation, much of this festive food waste risks ending up in landfill, where it will release over 160,000 tonnes of CO2e, that’s the equivalent of over 110,000 additional cars on the road for a year.
But this worrying picture could be one of Christmas cheer, as leaders in the UK’s circular economy, Bio Capital are highlighting that this food waste could be transformed into renewable energy.
How Christmas leftovers could help power the UK
The stark reality is that around 60-70% of our food waste comes from our homes.
By making a simple change and ensuring all your food waste goes into your food caddy bin, you can support the renewable energy transition. Councils across the UK take household food waste to facilities like Bio Capital’s, where it’s recycled.
This year’s Christmas pudding can become renewable gas and electricity that feeds straight into the local grid, providing heat and power for homes and businesses, or becomes compressed natural gas (CNG) to fuel green vehicles.
The process even creates a high-quality biofertiliser that’s returned to the land to support sustainable farming, and can even be used to grow next year’s crop of sprouts or carrots.
Festive food transformed
This is the circular economy in action; it all happens via anaerobic digestion (AD), a process where food waste is broken down without oxygen.
Bio Capital’s specialist AD facilities in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland process up to half a million tonnes of food waste every year. That saves around 345,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, about the same as around 240,000 less cars on the road annually.
In 2024, Bio Capital generated enough renewable power to supply around 100,000 UK households for a year.
Jake Harrison, Chief Technical Officer, at Bio Capital adds:
“Christmas is one of the most wasteful periods in the UK calendar, but it doesn’t have to be. We challenge you to think differently about food waste and see it as part of an intelligent energy cycle that can power the country and save carbon emissions.
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“If those 230,000 tonnes of festive food waste reached us at Bio Capital, it could produce enough renewable energy to power around 36,000 homes. So, we’re asking you to make one simple change this season and recycle your food waste.”
The huge opportunity anaerobic digestion creates can only be realised with support from households, local authorities and businesses across the UK. Let’s save that food from landfill and transform it as part of a closed-loop response to climate change.
We can tackle food waste this Christmas.
