BJ’s Wholesale Club is the first wholesale club and the most recent participant in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, a national initiative aimed at encouraging businesses and institutions to prevent food waste.
BJ’s operates 203 Clubs in 15 states from Maine to Florida.
Sending food waste to a landfill represents a missed opportunity for businesses to reduce costs, says Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office.
According to EPA’s Municipal Characterization Report Americans are wasting more than 36 million tons of food per year, 96 percent of which is thrown away into landfills or incinerators. The National Resources Defense Council estimates that this translates into a loss of about $165 billion annually.
BJ’s joins some 800 participants including Whole Foods, MGM Resorts and the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team that have already committed to at least a 5 percent increase in at least one of the three food diversion categories: prevention, donation or composting. Or alternatively, FRC members can commit to a combined 5 percent increase across all three food waste diversion categories.
