Being Green > Reducing Waste and Recycling Materials
As a major retailer, the biggest opportunities we have in terms of reducing waste and increasing recycling are to recycle more corrugated cardboard, implement paper recycling across more stores and facilities, and reduce waste at its source.
In 2007 we achieved the following results:
- Increased recycling of paper and cardboard by 21%, from 19,000 tons to 23,000 tons.
- Implemented basic paper recycling at all the stores where we have backhaul to crossdock capabilities.
- Rolled out an innovative fixture refurbishment and reuse program through which, we estimate, we reused over 1,800 tons of store fixtures. We also started buying refurbished shopping carts for use in our stores.
Not counting our fixture reuse programs, we recycled over 26,000 tons of materials in North America in 2007 and reduced total tons of waste sent to landfills from 36,500 to 27,000 tons. We still believe we have significant environmental and economic opportunity to reduce waste and recycle more.
We recognize we still have opportunities in stores and warehouses to divert more product returns, cardboard and paper from the waste stream.