Waste and Recycling
We aspire to become a zero waste-to-landfill business by 2020. Imagine literally having no garbage dumpsters at any REI facility. We recognize that this means we must continue to take very aggressive actions on waste reduction and recycling in order to meet our goal.
Estimated Waste Volume (Cubic Yards)
Estimated Waste Weight (Tons)
Waste Summary
Highlights
Cardboard is the main component of our waste stream, and comes mostly from our retail operations and distribution centers. Nearly all cardboard waste from these sources is recycled, along with a high percentage of the other wastes generated at these facilities.
In 2007 we launched commercial-scale composting for food waste in our headquarters café in Kent, Wash. We hope to learn from this program because we believe in future years composting will be a key tool to achieve our zero-waste to landfill goal. We also put in place recycling programs at our stores and facilities to divert hazardous materials such as fluorescent light tubes and batteries out of our waste and into recycling.
Last year we also launched a plan to replace chemical solvents (used to clean bicycle parts) in all of our stores with machines that use water and sonic waves. This technology will reduce our employees' exposure to hazardous materials and eliminate approximately 4,000 gallons of hazardous material from our bike shops. This change will take place beginning in 2008.
Getting even further into our waste stream, we partner with Alchemy Bags to recycle used inner tubes from our bike shops. Alchemy Bags uses the inner tubes to create highly stylized messenger bags, which are sold in our stores.
Taking into consideration our entire waste stream sources combined — wooden pallets, paper, cans and bottles, and other miscellaneous waste streams — and those described above, we are actively recycling approximately 76 percent of our waste by weight, or 67 percent by volume. Our aggressive efforts in recycling today will help tremendously in our goal to become a zero waste-to-landfill organization by 2020.
Challenges
While we continue to divert a tremendous amount of our waste from the landfill and into recycling, a lot of work remains to meet our zero waste-to-landfill goal by 2020. For example, recycling options and food waste composting programs are limited in the communities where we do business.
Further, we count all construction waste associated with our building efforts as part of our waste stream, versus the contractor's waste stream. This adds to our overall volume of waste generated and presents additional challenges when it comes to identifying recycling programs.
To address these challenges we will work with other businesses in our markets to push for and support recycling programs. We see this as an opportunity to help create environmental improvements in the markets we serve.
Looking Forward
We have hired a packaging engineer within in our REI-brand team and are working to minimize the amount of packaging needed to transport and display our products. We are taking steps to bring the standards for product packaging in line with our paper standards described above.
Methodology
In 2007 we gathered data for our entire operations on the amount of waste we produce, the percentage we recycled, and what materials make up our waste stream. This expanded our scope from our 2006 reporting and expanded our baseline to measure progress in the coming years.
Our retail data was compiled through a collaborative research project with graduate students in sustainable business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute. In 2008 we plan to develop further systemic methods to measure and reduce our waste.
