whole foods market north atlantic region waste systems
TRANSCRIPT
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Our region covers Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the eastern part of Connecticut
38 stores total -30 in Massachusetts
4 Facilities- Bakehouse, Commissary, Seafood Processing Facility, and Distribution Center
Huge variations between rural (Hadley MA) to suburban (Framingham) to city (Symphony)
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Two self contained 35 yard compactors – one for Compost and one for Trash
Baler for OCC cardboard
Container for Single Stream Recyclables
Designated areas set aside for items we backhaul to our DC – Pallets, Fish Vats, Bales of OCC, stretch plastic, # 5 plastic, redeemables for stores with RVMs, etc.
Food Donation bins - designated area in receiving
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Totes for Compost
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Installed in our Andover store in June 2014
First grocery store in US to have this system
We’ve since installed in our River St. Cambridge store
We have plans to install in 2 city stores – Symphony and Charles River
We plan to open a new store with this system in place in 2016
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Table with Grinder
Requires electrical and plumbing
We put FRP on wall behind, and hand sink nearby
Need room around table for someone to work and a cart to be parked
Very clean, quick system overall
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No room inside for tank at either Andover or River St, so it was put outside
This required insulation to ensure it doesn’t freeze in the winter – which adds to the size of the tank
We are planning to put some tanks inside which won’t require insulation
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Andover Tank
Tank is sized for
estimated food
waste load, so it
gets emptied
about every 14
days. This is
flexible, and in
some cases, we
might end up
with a smaller
tank, that has to
be pumped more
often.
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System works well
Any issues/concerns have been addressed quickly, great Customer service overall
It takes all food waste plus some paper (napkins, paper towels) etc
We are working with Emerson to find a solution to also include compostable containers in the future
We really like the Anaerobic Digester on a local farm component – great story and also produces energy
Pricing compared to traditional compost system is roughly equivalent, and can be better depending on distance from location to AD (hauling is variable cost)
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We put the ECO2 system into two stores in November – South Weymouth and Wellesley
ECO2 system was being used in hotels and produce markets in Texas
We were the first grocery store to use this specific system
Similar technology and system to G2E – unit macerates food waste, and then sends slurry to tank.
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Primary difference is this system doesn’t add any water in – so no plumbing is needed, just electrical
Nice size unit, doesn’t take up a lot of room
Added feature of a clear length of pipe so you can see the waste leaving the unit – looks cool and also allows you to see if there’s a problem with it moving along
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Because there’s no water added in, the tank is smaller than with G2E
Insulation still required when placed outside – which it was in both of our pilot stores due to lack of space inside
Same basic process for being pumped, only difference is LES has their own trucks and infrastructure whereas G2E has partnered with Casella
Same destination – an anaerobic digester on a local farm – same end product.
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From the start, there were certain items that could not be included – pineapple tops, meat, coffee grounds
We also were not including any paper
LES was/is working on upgrading the machine to include all food waste – and focusing on those problem areas in particular.
They made some changes which did improve the overall performance of the unit.
There were also some mechanical issues with the units
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At 3 months into the pilot, we evaluated our waste diversion with this system.
It felt like we’d taken some steps backward, and more waste was going into our Trash compactor than before.
Even though they were working diligently on this we didn’t want to go backwards.
So we decided to stop using this system until they could work through these issues and give us a system that worked for all food waste plus paper.
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Our goal is to divert as much as possible from our Trash stream – we are aiming for Zero Waste at all locations with maximum diversion
These systems do a great job of dealing with food waste in a clean, efficient manner – but there are some things you can’t put in that you can include in compost
Biggest challenge for us is our waxed cardboard – which is currently included in our compost loads
We are working on finding a different solution to this so we can expand the G2E system into more stores.