The meat heaters: 5,000 tons of unsold Tesco cuts a year are being burned to provide power for homes

Tesco is sending 5,000 tons of leftover meat a year to be burned to generate electricity for homes, it emerged yesterday.

The supermarket disposes of enough meat that has passed its sell-by date to power 600 homes for a year through the National Grid.

Other major supermarkets plan to follow suit. But animal rights campaigners yesterday said many homeowners would be 'horrified' to learn that their electricity was generated by the 'macabre' recycling scheme.

Tesco has hailed the scheme as part of a 'green' drive which had enabled it to stop sending any of the waste it produces to environmentally damaging landfill sites.

But the campaigners said the environmental benefits were far outweighed by the greenhouse gases produced by all the extra animals unnecessarily reared for slaughter in the first place.

The supermarket giant sends 5,000 tons of out-of-date meat to the National Grid, enough to power 600 homes for a year

Animal rights campaign group Viva said vegetarians in particular would be alarmed to discover that their houses were being part-powered by out-of-date meat.

Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager for Viva (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals), said: 'It's a sad indictment of modern life that not only hundreds of millions of animals are killed each year in the UK, but so much meat is left over from greed and indifference.

'To turn this wasted meat into power might seem like a good idea at first, but you have to ask yourself why is so much left over and why are so many animals dying to provide this excess?

'Surely killing fewer animals in the first place should be the aim.

'Whatever savings are made by turning this meat into energy is more than voided by the huge amount of greenhouse gases generated by the farming and production of the meat in the first place.

'Tesco should take a long hard look at its wasteful practices.'

He said consumers should be told if their domestic power came from such sources.

'More and more people are choosing to adopt an ethical and green vegetarian or vegan diet,' he added.

'Green Drive': The supermarket says the scheme means it is not sending as much waste to environmentally damaging landfill sites

'Most would be horrified to find out that their power was generated by leftover meat.

'Consumers should have the right to know if their power is generated in this macabre manner.'

The meat and other food waste is processed in biomass-to- energy

plants which turn waste food into biofuel and then use that to produce renewable electricity.

Britain lags behind other European countries in the use of this ' anaerobic digestion' conversion, and ministers were handed recommendations on how to boost rates by an expert review panel last month.

Tesco, the UK's biggest retailer, said this week that it had succeeded in diverting all of its annual 531,000 tons of waste - equivalent to the weight of 75,000 double-decker buses - away from landfill.

Normally only about 385,000 tons would be recycled, with 146,000 tons going to landfill.

The supermarket giant had originally planned to have no waste going to landfill by the end of this year, but has fulfilled its pledge early.

Sainsbury's are also running a zero landfill scheme in which food waste will be sent to anaerobic digestion plants. The leftover products will then be turned into fertiliser or pet food.

The supermarket also plans to recycle all its 20,000 tons of non-food waste including metal, plastic and paper packaging.

Asda and Ocado, which delivers Waitrose groceries, are also planning to follow suit.

Of the main supermarket chains, only Wm Morrison has yet to make any firm commitment to sending no waste to landfill.