Fort Smith Ground Zero for Wal-Mart

Mike Hagood spends all day talking trash.

He’s not trying out for the NFL, he’s just trying to achieve the goal of zero waste for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

In 2005, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott laid out a series of ambitious goals for the world’s largest retailer from reducing energy use in its thousands of stores to increased fuel efficiency for its trucks and reductions in packaging.

The Bentonville-based company has made strides toward all its goals since, and the Fort Smith market is the test area for its target of zero waste from its 4,100 Supercenters, Sam’s Clubs and Neighborhood Markets in the U.S.

Hagood, the waste network captain for Wal-Mart, said the Fort Smith market is between 70 percent and 80 percent of its zero waste goal since the effort began in February.

Supercenter trash compactors that hold seven to eight tons of waste were being emptied four to five times per month before the push began. Now, the same compactors are being dumped only once every three to four weeks.

“We have made tremendous progress on that side,” Hagood said.

The Fort Smith market was chosen for its proximity to the home office as well as its separation.

Hagood described the Fort Smith market, which includes each type of Wal-Mart store, as more “real world” than those in Wal-Mart’s immediate backyard in Washington and Benton counties where more experimentation takes place.

“You’ve got executives walking in and out all the time,” Hagood said of stores in the two-county area. “Managers are always trying new stuff. Fort Smith gives us a good assortment of prototypes.”

Wal-Mart has gotten creative in its means of waste disposal. It found a company in Marshall, Texas, that makes plastic pallets out of used oil bottles most recyclers won’t take and it has helped create the market for its “super sandwich bales” which are bracketed by cardboard and contain 31 recyclable commodities.

Since instituting the sandwich baling process, Wal-Mart has diverted about 97 million pounds of plastic from land fills, a figure Hagood says is now up to around 10 million to 12 million pounds per month companywide.

Hagood said awareness for associates was the key initially.

“The first thing we did was get them to look at what is going in the compactor,” he said. “We’ve been making cardboard bales for 40 years and recycling. We had to make sure they understood what the term really meant.

“There is a lot of packaging that could go in the bale like shoe boxes and cereal boxes. We got them very focused on what it could be.”

Wal-Mart has even gotten its suppliers involved in the resale of recyclables.

Hagood said Wal-Mart is working with several companies and that by January 2009, customers will see some full product lines that will meet the definition of a “closed loop” made from Wal-Mart’s waste stream.

Waste Not

Two areas of Wal-Mart stores many may think would be the toughest to achieve zero waste are actually where Wal-Mart is the closest to achieving its goal.

In the Tire & Lube Express departments, Wal-Mart is at 95 percent to 97 percent waste free according to Hagood.

As mentioned, oil bottles are being recycled, oil filters are being sent back to the manufacturers to be ground up into new ones and used motor oil is being sold for use in biofuels.

Battery companies are repurchasing old product in addition to the lead weights used for tire balancing.

Car batteries are also one area that is holding Wal-Mart back in TLE, thanks to what Hagood called a “green sludge” byproduct for which his team hasn’t yet found a solution.

The other waste component frustrating his team illustrates just how deep the company is drilling down to eliminate waste: Dirt from vacuuming out cars.

“We don’t know what to do with it,” Hagood said. “We’ve tried to use sifters to separate the dirt from paper, but we’re still looking for solutions.”

The other area of the store Wal-Mart is approaching zero waste is the photo department.

Hagood said Wal-Mart is recovering silver from film and recycling CD wraps, film canisters, chemical bottles and the paper waste. There is also a recycling program for ink cartridges used in-house or by customers.

“We are really trying to change the thought process of our associates and customers,” Hagood said.

Again, the only thing stopping Hagood from declaring the department waste free seems minor. There are two to three trashcans for customer use in the area, and all it takes is one half-empty drink cup to contaminate the waste.

Making Green

Hagood became the waste captain for Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Value Network last October and said it became “obvious” to him pretty quick that there were companies who wanted its garbage.

Hagood heard about a company in Utah that would pick up Wal-Mart’s trash, then haul it to a facility to sort out the recyclables. Wal-Mart had a study done on its waste stream and discovered 40 percent of it was recyclable.

“We had to look at trash like a commodity,” Hagood said.

For years, Wal-Mart garden centers simply tossed out the black buckets carrying flowers. Wal-Mart now has six return centers where the floral buckets are shipped, then resold to the supplier at a much cheaper price than new ones.

A similar effort is under way in the bakery department, where stores go through hundreds of heavy duty five-gallon icing buckets every week.

The icing buckets are too strong to throw in the compactor, so now Wal-Mart sanitizes them and sends them back to the return center for suppliers to purchase.

“Most things we’re doing, we’re finding we can offset an expense or make money at it,” Hagood said. “That’s been the most exciting thing for us.”

Wal-Mart is also rolling out a new reusable shopping bag in October that is made from 100 percent recycled soda bottles. The current version is 85 percent, costs $1 and eliminates the need for four regular plastic bags.

Some cities like Seattle have begun passing ordinances that require retailers to charge customers for each plastic bag, a trend that will no doubt continue to spread.

Harvesting Waste

Besides the environment, the biggest beneficiary of Wal-Mart’s program in Fort Smith has been Feeding America, formerly known as America’s Second Harvest.

With the economic downturn, food donations have declined dramatically around the country, making the Wal-Mart waste reduction effort a boon for food banks.

Ted Clemons, director of agency-donor relations for the River Valley Regional Food Bank, part of the Feeding America network, said the Wal-Mart effort has been “helping tremendously.”

“Getting local product has been fantastic,” Clemons said. “And it’s really good product.”

Hagood said Wal-Mart pulls and freezes product from the shelves three days before the expiration dates.

That allows Wal-Mart, through the refrigerated trucks in the Feeding America network, to preserve the “cold chain” in transit.

The River Valley Regional Food Bank has received 77,411 pounds in donations from Wal-Mart stores, including rare products like beef and produce.

“We’ve never seen beef (as a donation) before, and that’s good product,” Clemons said. “Same for produce. We hardly ever get produce.”

The most donated product from Wal-Mart has been from the bakery, and Clemons praised the quality for its freshness.

“On our production lines, we have so much of it,” Hagood said. “We’re also donating a lot of pre-made meals.”

Clemons said the River Valley Food Bank makes between three and five pick-ups each week from the various stores and the food is usually gone by early afternoon.

Wal-Mart has expanded the program to Houston, Tulsa and Austin with plans to roll out the food donation program nationwide and will partner with Feeding America to take advantage of its ability to reach every city in the country through its networked food banks like the one in Fort Smith.

The River Valley Food Bank serves around 190 agencies in eight counties.

“[Feeding America is] the only one out there with the guidelines, safety inspections and logistics to do what we need to do,” said Hagood.

Clemons said the Wal-Mart program is “getting the food into the hands of people that need it.”

“I’m glad they’ve come on board,” he said.

“It’s fantastic.”