Walmart and Denali expand food waste recycling partnership
Denali collects food waste from various sources, including food manufacturers, retailers, and distribution centres. The collected waste is fed into depackaging machines that use mechanical methods to separate the food waste from the packaging material. The separated material is then repurposed into useful various useful products.
Denali says its depackaging services help 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.
The new partnership will see Denali roll out its depackaging services at over 1,400 Walmart and Sam's Club locations nationwide.
Based on early testing, Denali the technology has has increased the volume of potentially reusable organic content recovered from participating Walmart and Sam's Club locations by more than 60% and reduced their compactor trash by an estimated 12%.
Walmart is one of the first retailers to use the newly implemented depackaging capabilities at scale. It says the partnership aims to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of its waste management practices, and support the company’s sustainability objectives and pursuit of operational waste reduction.
“Walmart is focused on driving innovations that build operational efficiency, improve store associates’ experience, and help reduce waste," said RJ Zanes, Walmart's vice president of facility services. “Denali’s depackaging technology can help enable us to turn millions of pounds of potential food waste into useful products each year while allowing our associates to devote more time serving our customers.”
“Denali’s depackaging technology is revolutionising the way in which food manufacturers, distributors, retailers and the cities in which they operate can reduce food waste,” said Ilia Kostov, Denali’s Chief Revenue Officer. “We are proud to work with the leading retailer – Walmart and Sam’s Club – to help reduce food waste at scale while simultaneously enabling the circular economy.”
Food waste has far-reaching environmental implications
According to ReFED, the US generated about 77.6 million tonnes of food waste in 2022 and about 3.9% comes from retailers due to damaged or expired items that are unable to be sold to consumers.
After piloting the programme in multiple markets over several years, Denali began its nationwide depackaging services rollout in 2023 in Phoenix, where the City of Phoenix diverted 2,000 tonnes 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.
Annually, Denali claims it recycles over 1 billion pounds of food waste into useful products. Additionally, its depackaging services can process other food categories including animal products, dry and liquid goods.
In another project, Denali is taking water treatment residuals from chickens – which contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus and turning it into nutrient-rich fertiliser for thousands of acres of farmland.
Denali says this has helped farmers reduce their use of expensive/chemical fertilisers - saving them up to $600 per acre.
