Whole Foods

Whole Foods Recycling

Corporate Sustainability

Corporate sustainability is recognized as the growth, profitability, and societal goals. According to Mel Wilson ,“while corporate sustainability recognizes that corporate growth  and profitability are important, it also requires that corporation to pursue societal goals, specifically those relating to sustainable development – environmental protection, social justice and equity, and economic development” (Ivey Business Journal, April 2003). As part of Whole Foods social responsibility, the company has created several recycling programs with Gimme 5, Air Cycle, and Cork ReHarvest to reduce the amount of waste that deposited into landfills. As of January 2009, Whole Foods started a pilot program to collect plastic containers that are stamped with a number 5.  Since its implementations, over 381,000 pounds of plastic have been collected and recycled. The containers are primarily used to package yogurt, cottage cheese, hummus, medicine bottles.  These plastics were often sent to Asia to burn as fuel, as a result of the implementation of the pilot program these plastics are recycled here in America. As mentioned by wholefoodmaket.com, plastic bins are placed in whole foods to encourage customers to bring in their used containers into participating stores for processing.   The program is now available in over 230 stores. Whole foods has also partnered with Easy pack manufacturer of fluorescent light bulbs and batteries.

Whole Foods encourages customers to bring in all containers made with number 5 plastic. These containers are sent to Preserve processing facilities, where they are processed by grinding them up into small pellets and then stored for future melting into various products.  Whole foods also discovered cost effective ways to reduce through its partnership with Air Cycle Corporation. Through this partnership Air cycle has created Easy pack container which are distributed in stores for customers to fill up with universal waste (those items containing hazardous elements of mercury or vapors) that is harmful to landfills and water if released.  Easy Pak has developed a package that customers fill and mail via Fedex to a processing plant to be disposed.  In April of 2009, Whole Foods established a partnership with Cork Reharvest to dispose of corks which is a renewable, recyclable material. Through this partnership, corks will be collected and delivered to various processing plants to be turned into recycled wine stoppers containing 10 percent cork, post-consumer products, and cork floor tiles. According to Patrick Spencer, director of Cork ReHarvest, ”through this recycling effort, Whole Foods Market is demonstrating its commitment to its green mission” (Bloomberg, 2013). Recycling these corks will reduce the carbon footprint as corks are primarily made by extracting the bark from trees every 9 to 12 years. If an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Whole Foods trains each employee on how to use lighting and powered equipment more responsibly which has lowered stores usage by 5 percent.