2Sustain

Walmart is one step closer to reaching its global goal of creating zero waste.

The company reported last week that a pilot waste management program has eliminated more than 80 percent of the waste that would otherwise go to landfills from its operations in California.

Once implemented across Walmart’s 4,400 stores, Sam’s Club locations and distribution centers in the US, this program would help the company prevent more than 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. This is equal to taking more than 2 million cars off the road for a year.

The Walmart zero waste program has three main components: (more…)

Late last month, Xerox Corporation released its 2010 Report on Global Citizenship, providing a comprehensive overview of the company’s activities and progress in five key areas of corporate social responsibility: environmental sustainability, governance and ethics, customer privacy and satisfaction, employee diversity and development and corporate giving and volunteerism.

With regard to environmental sustainability, Xerox reported that: (more…)

Late last month, Caterpillar announced that two of its facilities achieved zero waste to landfill in 2010.

Both the Caterpillar Remanufacturing & Components Division United Kingdom Hose Assembly (UKHA) plant in Leicester, England and the Caterpillar Logistics Services (Cat Logistics) in Desford, England have reached 100-percent recycling for their operations.

In a press release, Caterpillar outlines specific accomplishments at each facility. For instance, at the Cat Logistics Services in Desford: (more…)

P&G underscored its commitment to environmental sustainability with the announcement last week that its Auburn, Maine site is now zero waste to landfill. The Auburn site, which produces feminine care products, is the first P&G manufacturing plant in North America to achieve this goal.

According to P&G, the plant now recycles or reuses more than 60 percent of its waste. The remainder is converted to energy. The company says forming business partnerships was critical for meeting the zero waste goal.

For instance, the P&G Global Asset Recovery Purchases (GARP) team, which is charged with finding external partners that can turn waste and non-performing inventory into something useful, connected the plant with a site solution provider who helped sort all recyclable materials and convert existing non-recyclable materials to energy through incineration. The electricity from the incineration is used by the incineration facility and then, the excess is sold to the local power company. P&G estimates that the GARP team has diverted tens of thousands of tons from landfills while delivering tens of millions of dollars in cost recovery in the past year alone. (more…)

Last week, I wrote about UK food retailers that are voluntarily committing to reduce waste.

New this week, I’ve learned that two grocery stores in Santa Barbara, California have reached “zero waste” classification in their daily operations.

Alberstons, part of the nationwide SUPERVALU family of grocery stores, announced late last month that through a combination of

• innovative recycling programs,

• a food donation program and

• a joint organic composting program with the City of Santa Barbara,

the two stores now divert all non-contaminated waste from landfills and incinerators.

In total, over 95 percent of all waste products from both stores are recycled, reused or composted – exceeding the 90 percent threshold commonly recognized as zero waste. And that means that together, the stores divert annually on average 2,074,328 pounds of waste from the landfill, including 808,200 pounds of cardboard, 27,524 pounds of plastic and 2,688 pounds of paper.

According to Albertsons, the waste diversion program hinged on two key components: (more…)