Walmart and Denali partnership scales US food waste recycling with depackaging tech

30 Jul 2024 --- Walmart and Denali, a recycler of organic materials, are collaborating on depackaging services claimed to improve the food waste recycling process at over 1,400 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in the US.

Based on early testing, the depackaging services have reportedly increased the volume of potentially reusable organic content recovered from participating sites by more than 60% and reduced their compactor trash by an estimated 12%.

The program locations cover more than 16 markets across the country including Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Indianapolis, Phoenix and cities across New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut — with the rollout to continue nationwide into 2025.

“Denali’s depackaging technology can help enable us turn millions of pounds of potential food waste into useful products each year while allowing our associates to devote more time serving our customers,” says RJ Zanes, Walmart’s vice president of Facility Services.

Cleaner streams of organic material
The depackaging technology and processes separate food from its packaging materials like plastic and cardboard, producing a cleaner stream of organic material that can be turned into animal feed, compost or converted into energy with anaerobic digesters. 

This helps avoid the process of manually separating food from its packaging — making it easier to recycle and reuse food waste while freeing up time for retailers. Walmart is one of the first retailers to leverage the newly implemented depackaging capabilities at scale.

Denali currently provides depackaging services to thousands of grocers, food manufacturers, distributors and municipalities nationwide by collecting food waste from partners and recycling it into products like compost, organic fertilizer, animal feed and clean energy, keeping this resource out of landfills.

The specialist’s network of depackaging facilities can separate up to 97% of all trash from organic food waste, including expired food products, recalled items, food scraps and spoiled deli, bakery and produce. Additionally, it highlights its depackaging services can process other food categories, including animal products, dry and liquid goods.

“Denali’s depackaging technology is revolutionizing the way in which food manufacturers, distributors, retailers — and the cities in which they operate — can reduce food waste,” says Ilia Kostov, Denali’s Chief Revenue Officer. 

After piloting the program in multiple markets over several years, Denali began its nationwide depackaging services rollout in 2023 in Phoenix, where the city diverted 2,000 tons of food waste generated from events and activities related to the Big Game. 

Since then, Denali has supported the City of Phoenix and local retailers to process and reduce the amount of food waste reaching landfills.