Case Study: Grocery Store Chain

How Quest helped a national grocery chain save millions while achieving its sustainability goals. Throughout a series of assessments, Quest quickly identified various waste streams that could be removed from landfills, implemented and began managing a comprehensive landfill diversion program for recycling used motor oil, antifreeze, used tires, and oil filters.

How Quest helped a national grocery chain save millions while achieving its sustainability goals

THE PROBLEM:

• A grocery store chain with stores across North America needed to reduce operating costs. Environmental expenses were high, but they could not hire in-house
  personnel to tackle the issue
• Store management wanted to be a good corporate citizen and also do right for the environment
• Store management sought a way to connect with their local community and sustain a competitive edge

THE SOLUTION:

Quest Recycling completed store assessments and calculated the chain’s waste baseline

The team identified various waste streams that could be removed from landfill, and ran targeted pilots to calculate accurate savings on solid waste management cost, and measure employees’ engagement.

Quest Recycling Services rolled out and managed the following landfill diversion programs:

• Food donation program
• Food waste recycling program
• Meat and seafood recycling program
• Cardboard and plastics recycling program
• Used cooking oil recycling program

Quest managed the remaining solid waste to maximize savings

THE IMPACT:

1. Increased landfill diversion:
   • Food Donation: 10 tons per store per year
   • Food Waste: 89 tons per store per year
   • Meat & Seafood: 9 tons per store per year
   • Used Cooking Oil: 8 tons per store per year
2. Increased landfill diversion:
   • Applied savings in solid waste to fund new programs develop a
   • cost neutral program.
   • Increase commodity rebate by about 45%
   • Managed programs for day-to-day operations and secured a 22%
     saving in Year 2, and a 19% saving in Year 3 by pegging rebate to
     appropriate commodity market, minimizing contamination,
     optimizing service interval and auditing each invoice
3. Increase Employee Moral and Community Outreach:
   • Internal surveys showed employee morale increased significantly
   • and showed 100% support with company’s environmental
   • stewardship programs
   • Communicated good citizenship to customers and helped reinforce
     presence in local community.