A grocery store brand owned by Kroger, the largest supermarket operator in the United States, is expanding its organics recycling program, continuing its efforts to lower food waste.
The company's Fred Meyer brand is adding 105 stores in Washington and Oregon to its partnership with Divert, a company that works to redirect unsold food from landfills, according to a report by Supermarket News.
Divert collects data from grocery stores to track what's being sold and tossed and helps improve ordering efficiency to prevent overbuying and waste. It also identifies unsold inventory and works to get it to people in need.
"Fred Meyer and Kroger have been valued customers of Divert for many years, and we are proud to expand our collaboration to further advance the impact of our food diversion and recovery efforts," Ben Kuethe Oaks, vice president and general manager of retail at Divert, said in a news release.
"With Divert now supporting Fred Meyer across its entire store network, we are bringing increased visibility to each and every store — unlocking new opportunities for waste prevention, food donations, as well as operational efficiencies that drive meaningful cost and time savings," Kuethe Oaks added.
Food waste is an expensive problem in the U.S., with the average American spending $788 on food that goes uneaten, according to ReFed, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing food waste.
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And according to Feeding America, people in the country throw away 92 billion pounds of food annually, equal to $473 billion in money wasted on food sent to landfills. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that food waste is the "single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U.S."
That makes the partnership between Fred Meyer grocery stores and Divert all the more valuable, saving money on a business level and helping prevent perfectly good food from going to waste.
It's especially important that the company finds ways to not just keep food out of landfills, where it contributes to the changing climate by releasing planet-warming gases, but also get it to people who need to be fed.
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