We’re primarily a produce company. We sell products that are grown in the soil, and, for the most part, will decompose if they’re not eaten in a timely fashion. Our journey to become a more sustainable company started with the various packaging materials generated in our distribution center. As we drilled down further into our waste stream, we found additional items to recycle. Our final barrier was the incorporation of a commercial composting program. Once our commercial compost permit was obtained from IDEM, we started with obvious things like fruits and vegetables and slowly grew our compostable diversion rates.

Today, we’re recycling packaging materials, electronics, office materials, metals, and anything else that we can. We Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, or Compost over 95% of what we at one time considered waste. As time passed, and we saw the benefits of being a sustainable company such as reducing our operational expenses while increasing our Recycling revenues, we continued to find new ways to reduce the amount of waste we were generating.

Since 2005, we’ve made steady progress every year. We’ve been, quite literally, shedding pounds of waste, becoming a leaner and more efficient company overall. This hasn’t been easy or immediate, but it is worthwhile. We have consistently reduced the amount of waste we put out into the world, all while supporting “green economy” jobs in our community.