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About Us
Our Businesses
Investors
Responsibility
Media
Production of the bagasse co-product at the Nakambala sugar factory in Zambia
ABF Sugar’s ethos is that waste materials are products for which it has yet to find a use. This is demonstrated by its bio-refineries, which transform sugar beet and sugarcane waste into a range of commercially viable products thanks to innovative manufacturing processes. The business continues to work to maximise the quantity of sugar beet processed so as little as possible is left in the field.
In 2023/24, the business increased the total amount of waste produced through its activities by 47% compared with the previous year. This increase is primarily due to our sugar business in Spain operating longer campaigns and processing larger quantities of sugar beet, as well as management of settlement ponds to maintain efficient operations. The soil from the settlement ponds is sent off-site for agricultural purposes as fertiliser and soil conditioning. Over 60% of the total waste generated this year was recycled waste from our operations in Spain.
In 2024, only 14% of all waste generated was sent to landfill with the remaining 86% recycled or used in another capacity.
ABF Sugar businesses use by-products to generate electricity. British Sugar uses bio-methane produced from its fermented sugar beet pulp to generate electricity, and carbon dioxide and low-grade heat generated at its operations to grow medicinal cannabis under licence.
Our sugar businesses in Africa use bagasse, the dry fibrous material that remains after crushing sugarcane, as its feedstock to generate up to 87% of the annual power requirements of its own factories. It also provides the opportunity to co-generate electricity in Eswatini which goes into the national grid. In June 2023, the Eston plant in South Africa also started to export power into the national grid.
Among the commercially viable products its businesses produce, British Sugar is a major producer of animal feed and a supplier of raffinate and betaine for use in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical sectors. African sugar by-products include furfural, a natural chemical feedstock with numerous applications in the food and other industries.
Vivergo is the largest bioethanol plant in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. Vivergo Fuels is now operational, and at peak capacity it will use around one million tonnes of UK animal feed-grade wheat. One of the main co-products is protein for animal feed, and at peak capacity the business will also be the largest single-source animal feed supplier in the UK. The blending of bioethanol with petroleum is a key aspect of many governments’ greenhouse gas reduction strategies. At full capacity, it is estimated that the Vivergo plant will produce 420 million litres of ethanol product per year. The net benefit of using this product blended with gasoline to create E10 is the saving of approximately 500,000 tonnes of CO2 which would otherwise be emitted from vehicle tailpipes annually.
Total waste generated and proportion of waste sent for recycling or other beneficial use
(000 tonnes)
ABF Sugar is committed to ensuring all its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, biodegradable or compostable by 2030. Plastic has a role to play in maintaining the integrity and safety of its products for customers, but it is striving to reduce packaging to minimise the impact on the environment.
In 2023/24, ABF Sugar reduced its total packaging by 26% from 15 kt to 11 kt. This reduction is primarily driven by a decrease in plastic packaging in ABF Sugar’s operations in Africa. Additionally, our businesses continue to explore innovative packaging to reduce the volume of materials used.
Plastic use across ABF Sugar, which accounts for 51% of total packaging reported by ABF as a Group, reduced by 36% from 8.7 kt in 2023 to 5.6 kt in 2024. Paper packaging contributes 34% of the total packaging materials in 2023/24, and reduced by 10% from 4.2 kt in 2023 to 3.8 kt in 2024.
Azucarera has a long-standing strategy to reduce its packaging. In 2023/24, achievements included replacing the plastic pouch of its sugar for marmalades with a paper pack, reducing the plastic weight used in the film retractile of pallets, replacing its agave syrup jar with a 100% recycled jar, increasing the proportion of recycled material in its icing sugar jar to 50%, and using a plastic for its panela doypack and coconut sugar that is easier to recycle.
Quantity of packaging used
(000 tonnes)
Our African sugar businesses’ strategy is to reduce packaging weight and use more packaging that can be reused or recycled. 97% of their packaging is recyclable. They have over 10 workstreams looking at packaging solutions, trialling new products and finding ways to enable customer recycling. One area of particular focus in 2023/24 was assessing solutions where local recycling is sparse, as not all of the countries where our sugar businesses in Africa operate currently have recycling facilities. In Tanzania, they are trialling Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene 25kg and 50kg bags without plastic liners. These bags are extremely durable and resistant to water. Without plastic liners, the business’s intention is to see if it can reduce the volume of packaging or remove other plastic liners and see if the new packaging can be used or recycled in the future.
