Walmart Reups With Denali to Recycle Food Waste

Agreement diverts inedible food from landfills for such uses as creating compost, feeding animals and generating renewable energy

Bridget Goldschmidt

10/17/2023

Across its operations, Denali recycles more than 10 billion pounds of organic materials annually, a considerable part of which comes from food retailers like Walmart.

Walmart has renewed an agreement under which Denali, a full-service recycler of organics, will provide food waste recycling at most of the retailer’s 4,700 stores in the United States, including Walmart locations, Sam’s Clubs and Walmart Neighborhood Markets with grocery departments. The partnership will enable the companies to annually divert millions of pounds of inedible food from landfills and toward such uses as creating compost, feeding animals and generating renewable energy.

Thanks to innovations in recycling technology, Denali predicts that the amount of waste avoided will grow significantly over the next five years. Further, Walmart and Denali will continue to explore new strategies and tools to lower food waste and maximize the positive impacts of recycling.

[Read more: “SPECIAL REPORT: The Greener Grocer”]

“Walmart is a leader and innovator in making retail more sustainable,” said Todd Mathes, CEO of Russellville, Ark.-based Denali, which “is proud to provide services that bring Walmart closer to its goal of zero waste in its U.S. operations by 2025.”

Across its operations, Denali recycles more than 10 billion pounds of organic materials annually, a considerable part of which comes from food retailers like Walmart. In doing so, Denali leverages its team of about 1,500 employees and fleet of 1,000-plus trucks to provide economical and environmentally responsible ways to put organic waste streams to use while avoiding disposal in landfills. The greenhouse-gas mitigation impact of Denali’s recycling food waste, one of several waste streams the company manages, is annually equivalent to taking approximately 100,000 cars off the road or providing electricity to more than 60,000 homes for a year.

Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit Walmart’s more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites under 46 banners in 24 countries. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, while its Sam’s Club division is No. 8. PG also named Walmart one of its Retailers of the Century