Assessing Our Environmental Stewardship

In honor of Earth Month in April and Earth Day on Monday, April 22, we took inventory of the sustainability measures employed at our central commissary. It's clear we  have upped our environmental stewardship game in recent years and especially since moving to our Eagan facility in 2022. Here's a run down of our efforts:

• Cardboard recycling: A lot of boxes move through our commissary on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Even canned and bagged products are shipped to us in boxes, after all. We reuse what we can and recycle the rest. The amount we've been recycling has increased by 17% between September 2023 and February 2024. In February, we recycled 23 bales of collapsed cardboard boxes, with each bale weighing about 1,200 pounds. That's a whopping 27,600 pounds in one month!
• Metal recycling: Cans of fruit and legumes add up quickly in our commissary. We recycle an average 5,600+ pounds of metal monthly. The new dumpster for metal recycling has significantly increased our capacity for recycling all those cans.
• Plastics recycling: While we recycle a figurative ton of plastic condiment jugs each month, they are processed through our regular garbage service andare not weighed when collected.
• Pallet recycling: All those boxes are delivered to us on wooden pallets, which we bring in for recycling and reuse - to the tune of nearly 500 pallets a month.
• CO2 reduction: All our deliveries are routed to reduce mileage of both our delivery vans and our weekly delivery trucks. The two fork lifts scooting through our warehouse are battery operated rather than propane gas.
• Electronics recycling: This month, we're also collecting company keyboards, cords, monitors, laptops, printers, etc. that are no longer in use for recycling by Repowered, one of the largest collectors of e-waste in Minnesota. It has processed more than 40 million pounds of electronics for recycling and refurbishing. In addition to collecting e-waste, Repowered is a social enterprise that provides jobs and training for persons facing barriers to employment.
• Reducing styrofoam use:  Most of our client partners who use disposable trays rather than washing reusable plastic trays are now using compostable, recycled fiber trays rather than styrofoam trays. In addition, our allergen-free meals are packed in metal tins instead of styrofoam.

It seems as though there's always more that could be done. Certainly, moving away from the use of single-use plastic containers and plastic bags, and establishing a system for organics recycling/composting would move us further along the sustainability spectrum, if we could implement these measures cost effectively without compromising the efficiency of our operations/processes and client service and convenience.