Denali and Walmart Collaborate to Rollout Innovative Organic Recycling & Reuse Technology Across Thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club Stores Nationwide
29 Julio 2024 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
- New depackaging processes, technology and expertise can
separate up to 97% or more of all trash from organic food
waste
- Walmart is the first retailer to collaborate with Denali to
leverage this technology as part of its goal to reduce operational
waste
- Based on early testing, Zero De-Pack solution has increased the
volume of potentially reusable organic content recovered from
participating Walmart and Sam's Club locations by more than 60% and
reduced their compactor trash by an estimated 12%
Denali, the nation’s leading and largest recycler of organic
materials, today announced a collaboration with Walmart to roll out
innovative depackaging services that can help improve the food
waste recycling process at more than a thousand Walmart and Sam's
Club locations nationwide. The innovative depackaging technology
aims to help drive operational efficiencies for Walmart enterprise
associates, and based on early testing, has increased the volume of
potentially reusable organic content recovered from participating
Walmart and Sam's Club locations by more than 60% and reduced their
compactor trash by an estimated 12%. As of today, the program has
launched in over 1,400 Walmart and Sam's Club locations in more
than 16 markets across the country including Houston, Dallas,
Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Indianapolis, Phoenix and cities
across New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut –
with rollout to continue nationwide into 2025.
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Denali's depackaging technology and
process separate food from its packaging materials, producing a
cleaner stream of organic material that can be turned into animal
feed or compost. (Photo: Business Wire)
The depackaging technology and processes separate food from its
packaging materials like plastic and cardboard, producing a cleaner
stream of organic material that can be turned into animal feed,
compost or converted into energy with anaerobic digesters. The
depackaging services help avoid the process of manually separating
food from its packaging – making it easier to recycle and reuse
food waste while freeing up time for retailers. Walmart is one of
the first retailers to leverage the newly implemented depackaging
capabilities at scale.
For Walmart, this initiative is an example of how the retailer
is tackling operational waste through projects aimed at improving
the effectiveness and efficiency of its waste management practices,
while supporting the company’s sustainability objectives and
pursuit of operational waste reduction.
“As a people-led, tech-powered retailer, Walmart is focused on
driving innovations that build operational efficiency, improve
store associates’ experience, and help reduce waste," said RJ
Zanes, Walmart's Vice President of Facility Services. “Denali’s
depackaging technology can help enable us to turn millions of
pounds of potential food waste into useful products each year while
allowing our associates to devote more time serving our
customers.”
Denali currently provides depackaging services to thousands of
grocers, food manufacturers, distributors and municipalities
nationwide by collecting food waste from partners and recycling
into valuable products like compost, organic fertilizer, animal
feed and clean energy, keeping this resource out of landfills.
Denali's network of depackaging facilities can separate up to 97%
of all trash from organic food waste, including expired food
products, recalled items, food scraps and spoiled deli, bakery and
produce. Additionally, the depackaging services can process other
food categories including animal products, dry and liquid
goods.
“Denali’s depackaging technology is revolutionizing the way in
which food manufacturers, distributors, retailers - and the cities
in which they operate - can reduce food waste,” said Ilia Kostov,
Denali’s Chief Revenue Officer. “We are proud to work with the
leading retailer – Walmart and Sam’s Club – to help reduce food
waste at scale while simultaneously enabling the circular
economy.”
After piloting the program in multiple markets over several
years, Denali began its nationwide depackaging services rollout in
2023 in Phoenix, where the City of Phoenix diverted 2,000 tons of
food waste generated from events and activities related to the Big
Game. Since then, Denali has supported the City of Phoenix and
local retailers to process and reduce the amount of food waste
reaching landfills.
BY THE NUMBERS
- According to ReFED, the U.S. generated about 77.6 million tons
of food waste in 2022 and about 3.9% comes from retailers due to
damaged or expired items that are unable to be sold to consumers.
Of the food waste generated by retail, 51% went to landfills and
39.5% went to compost or anaerobic digestion. Denali’s depackaging
network has the potential to greatly increase the amount of food
waste that is recycled through composting and anaerobic digestion,
rather than going to the landfill.
- Annually, Denali recycles over 1 billion pounds of food waste
into useful products.
- The depackaging machines will enable Denali to recycle 1.5
million pounds of food waste each day for an estimated 500 million
pounds of food waste into compost, fertilizer, animal feed and
clean energy each year, in partnership with retail and municipality
partners (based on 100 tons per store according to Denali).
- Through the city-by-city expansion, each individual business or
retail location that starts using the depackaging services, will be
able to divert an estimated 200,000 pounds of food waste from
landfills.
About Denali
Denali is the leading and largest organic recycling company on a
mission to replenish the Earth by repurposing waste. Our work is
essential to keeping water clean, reducing the need for new
landfill capacity, building soil fertility, helping farmers be more
resilient, and reducing society’s reliance on fossil fuels. Our
services and products touch thousands of acres, hundreds of
locales, millions of tons of material, and nearly every person who
purchases and consumes food in the U.S.
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Nadia Jamshidi Nadia.Jamshidi@padillaco.com