Striking food waste at the Kia Oval

The Kia Oval’s ORCA food waste machine diverted more than 5000kg of food waste in the final quarter of 2019.

ORCA diverted a total of 5187kg of waste from landfill between October and December 2019 alone, a total made more remarkable given that this is outside of the English cricket season. The peak of total food waste digested by the machine throughout the cricket season reached almost 200kg a day.

The machine, in place at The Kia Oval since April 2019, ‘digests’ food waste in a similar way to a human stomach and disposes of the resulting liquid through existing drainage.

As well as saving that food from landfill, the ORCA also saved on 3.36kg of methane gas, produced 4.56 tonnes less CO2 equivalency and 1665 litres less diesel fuel used in transport.
Kia Oval Executive Head Chef Josh Stanton said: “It’s great that ORCA is now a part of our daily operations in the kitchens at The Kia Oval and it’s exciting to see the positive impact this can have. As well as continuing to use ORCA, we’ll look at any further changes we can make to reduce our footprint in line with the rest of the business.”

The use of the ORCA is just one way in which The Kia Oval is working to be as sustainable as possible. We are working towards our goal of being single-use plastic free by the end of 2020, with more than 90% of single use plastic now eradicated, and the ground is powered entirely by renewable energy through our partnership with Fidelity Energy.