PDM Group has joined forces with European food-chain recycling businesses, SARIA Bio-Industries, to introduce its anaerobic digestion operation to the UK, operating under the name ReFood UK.

ReFood UK adds to PDM’s portfolio of food recycling solutions, which includes rendering, biomass-to-energy, pet food ingredients and now anaerobic digestion.

There are currently four ReFood plants operating in Germany, which take collections from 60,000 points across the country via 14 logistics centres.

Philip Simpson, commercial services director at PDM, believes that ReFood will take anaerobic digestion technology in the UK to a new level. He said, ‘As a nation, we are lagging behind our European counterparts when it comes to anaerobic digestion technology. PDM’s joint venture with SARIA ensures industrial scale recycling capabilities with advanced, clean and efficient technology.’

PDM received planning permission for the first ReFood UK AD plant in February. Located at PDM’s head office in Doncaster, the new facility will recycle around 45,000 tonnes per annum of food waste into 2MW of renewable energy.

PDM will be using the ReFood AD plants to recycle food waste collected from existing customers such as supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

‘The ReFood technology is very advanced compared to what’s already operating in the UK. Whereas the existing systems already operational in the UK have either been designed to handle sewage or agricultural wastes, ReFood’s plants have been designed and built to handle food wastes. As a result, the ReFood system is able to focus on recycling greater quantities of this type of material,’ added Simpson.