Expired margarine, ice cream, mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup will help create energy as the Romanian subsidiary of consumer goods company Unilever signed a partnership with energy producer Genesis Biopartner group to collect expired food and transform it into energy in the biogas plant in the village of Filipestii de Padure in Prahova county.

All the waste coming from expired food such as margarine, ice cream, mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup from the Unilever warehouse in the Prahova village of Aricestii Rahtivari will be collected and sent to the Genesis plant where it will be transformed into biogas and then used for renewable energy production. Through this initiative, Unilever seeks to reduce its impact on the environment, the company says.

The Genesis Biopartner plant in Filipestii de Padure processes 50 tons of organic matter every day to produce energy, both electrical and thermal, which it delivers to a local client, the meat and cold cuts producer CrisTim, which also delivers food waste to the biogas plant.

The total investment in this plant was EUR 5 million and the company seeks to set up other plants in Romania.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com