Retail giant Tesco has diverted all of its Northern Ireland waste away from landfills over the last 12 months, it has been revealed.

Tesco bosses have also implemented several 'environmentally friendly' solutions into store nationwide.

The move is part of a strategy to 'reduce, reuse and recycle', which has been successfully in operation for the past year.

Methane gas from landfill sites is significantly more damaging to the environment than carbon emissions.

Three years ago Tesco committed itself to finding ways of diverting 100% of its waste from landfills by 2010.

This week, its entire estate of 2,315 UK stores, including all stores in Northern Ireland, as well as distribution centres and offices have achieved that goal.

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There are no official targets for commercial businesses, although the Government has told local authorities to reduce by 45% the waste they send to landfill by 2020 against 2000 volumes.

Gary Mills, Director of Tesco in Northern Ireland said: "Tesco is committed to constantly improving our operations to become more environmentally friendly, and this landfill solution is just one of the many features that we have introduced to our stores.

"For example, a number of our stores in Northern Ireland are equipped with photo-voltaic (PV) panels on the roof to convert sunlight to electricity to help power the store, thus saving on energy consumption.

"Rainwater harvesting is also operational in stores across the province and reduces the amount of water drawn from the mains supply by collecting rainwater from the roof and using it to flush toilets in store."

New technologies such as innovative ways of turning waste into materials such as fuel and fertilizer have enabled Tesco to achieve its diversion target early with support from its waste services partner, Severnside Recycling.

Recognising the value of these new technologies, Tesco last year helped the launch of the Sustainable Consumption Institute with a grant of £25m, which will be channelled into further research and development, the company said.

(PR/KMcA)