How did they do it?

Simple, they went the extra mile with recycling, food donation program and organic composting.

The stores now divert all non-contaminated waste from landfills and incinerators. In total, over 95% of all waste products from both stores are recycled, reused or composted — exceeding the 90% threshold commonly recognized as zero waste.

What’s especially cool is that Albertson’s partnered with the City of Santa Barbara to establish one of the first citywide composting programs in the United States, which is a key piece of their waste diversion efforts. As a result of this program the city will compost 4,000,000 lbs. of foodscraps from 120 program participants this year alone. So kudos to each of the participants.

Another key component of the waste diversion program includes donating staple and perishable products that would otherwise go to waste for area food banks. Called the Albertsons Fresh Rescue Program, these two stores donate on average a total of 149,598 lbs. per year of food to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.

Simply put, backhaul recycling is sending the truck back tothe distribution center full of recyclable materials. Scrap paper, cardboard, plastic bags, stretch film (shrink wrap), pallets, etc.

This technique is a economy of scale play. Each store’s volumes may be too low to encourage store level recycling or individual market areas may or may not viable  recycling programs for a given material. By backhauling the recyclables, chain retailers amass enough volume of each material to be able to get preferred pricing and make a lower investment in compactors and balers and otehr recycling equipment.

Retailers may even backhaul sufficient volumes of recyling materials that the recycler will “spot a truck” at the loading lock or the retailer may be able to deal “mill direct,” where they can negotiate directly with the paper mill or what have you.

The United States Postal Service has a Zero Waste Initiative which involves backhauling. Check out a presentation called Implementing Backhaul Recycling here.