Bakery waste from Lantmännen Unibake is used for fuel and feed

Food, that ends up in a dumpster, has the same environmental footprint as food, that ends up in someone’s stomach. When food is wasted, the resources it takes to grow, harvest, process, produce, package and distribute food are also wasted.

According to a recent report by IPCC (UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) wasted and lost food account for a 10th of all our greenhouse gas emissions. In the EU alone, around 88 million tonnes of food are wasted every year – with around €143 billion lost in the process.

From field to fork

To fight this kind of food waste and make use of old burger buns and such, Lantmännen has built two recycling plants where they can handle food and bakery waste.

One of these recycling plants is located in the Finnish town of Kotka. Here all Lantmännen Unibake bakery waste in Finland is collected and dried up. Afterwards the waste gets processed. The bioethanol is used as climate-friendly biofuel – with up to 95 percent less CO2 emissions compared to fossil fuel. The starch is used as protein rich cattle feed, and the carbonic acid is used for the food industry.

The production of ethanol, feed and carbonic acid creates a circular business model for grain from field to fork with great climate benefits.

By the end of 2020 approximately 40% of all bakery waste from Lantmännen Unibake’s bakeries in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Estonia will be recycled to Lantmännen.

Facts and figures

• In Denmark the Ministry of Environment and Food has estimated that some 7 million tonnes of food go to waste annually. Every Dane throws out what equals 47 kilos of food – bread and cookies account for 12% of this food waste
  
  
• According to a UN report one-third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted annually resulting in substantial economic and environmental challenges. As a result, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has set a target (SDG 12) to halve the global food waste by 2030