Waste and Recycling

At REI, we aspire to be a zero waste-to-landfill business by 2020. This aspiration will drive our business practices to be much more effective and efficient. For example, in the future there will be no garbage dumpsters at any of REI's stores or other facilities.

Consider that REI pays at least twice for waste we send to the landfill: once for the hidden costs that bring the waste into our operations and again to dispose of it. To achieve our 2020 goal we must continue to take very aggressive actions on waste reduction and recycling. These actions need to move beyond the traditional thought of "reduce, reuse, recycle" to include reengineering products to eliminate waste from the beginning of the manufacturing cycle. This work must occur throughout our operations: from the point of purchase for inventory to working with local solid waste utilities where our retail operations, distribution centers and offices are located.

REI's waste numbers in the 2008 report build on our first comprehensive waste audit, conducted in 2007, and correct some previous inaccurate assumptions about waste volumes. As a result, the graphs below do not provide a year-over-year comparison.

Note: The waste charts and table were updated on October 6, 2009 to correct an error in overstating retail construction waste. The initial data was partially double counted for the 2008 calendar year.

Highlights

The great majority of REI's waste stream across our business operations is operational waste such as cardboard and plastics, as well as construction waste from new facility construction and remodels. In 2008, we were relatively successful by recycling approximately 85 percent of our operational waste by weight (4,270 tons) and 74 percent by volume (148,278 cubic yards).

In 2008, we focused more closely on product packaging. For example, we redesigned many packaging systems for REI's branded gear and apparel and reduced the volume of packaging material, reduced shipping costs, and minimized the labor required to stock these items.

Reducing our waste requires different strategies for different locations. For example, consider our two distribution centers in Sumner, WA and Bedford, PA. At each distribution center, we recover nearly 100 percent of all cardboard, the dominant waste stream at both locations. These two locations represent about 20 percent of REI's total building footprint, with a combined square footage of over 1.2 million square feet. In addition to cardboard, our distribution centers generate significant volumes of other wastes, including wooden pallets, plastic films and wraps, and even the waxed paper label backs from shipping labels. Our distribution centers have hundreds of employees who generate waste from their operations outside of shipping and receiving, such as cafeteria waste.

Employees at the distribution centers worked to divert waste from landfills. For example, actions at the Sumner facility in 2008 included increasing the number of recycling receptacles on site, seeking solutions for recycling hard plastics, creating collection points for scrap metal, and seeking opportunities to recycle individual items, such as the backings for shipping labels.

At our headquarters facility in Kent, WA, our waste stream resembles that of a typical office complex. As a result, this location generates a lower percentage of waste by comparison. Paper is the most common material in our headquarters' waste stream. We have significant recycling options in place for paper recycling, battery recycling, and organic food waste composting. REI's headquarters composting program has been very successful, allowing us to collect food and food-related waste from our on-site cafeteria for delivery to a local commercial composting company. Through this effort, we have reduced the need to empty our landfill dumpster at the campus cafe by 50 percent, saving several thousand dollars per year in waste disposal costs and offsetting the costs and impact of commercial collection of our food waste.

Our retail locations show the greatest range of cost when it comes to solid waste disposal and available recycling and other diversion options. To help address this, we have been implementing solutions in our stores in addition to recycling. For example, we continued to install ultrasonic cleaners in many of our bike shops in our stores. This provides significant savings by eliminating a hazardous waste stream (solvents used for parts cleaning) and an additional savings in the form of labor as our bike mechanics no longer need to scrub parts by hand.

Challenges

Managing waste is a significant expense and environmental challenge for REI, and this cost has grown faster than our business growth. Not surprisingly, we have found that services such as recycling, composting and other innovations in waste management are sporadic in different markets. This makes single solutions to waste reduction across all of our operations rare.

Our waste stream challenges at our retail operations include a significant amount of packaging from vendors, some of which is not recyclable in every city (such as plastic film). Helping to educate employees and finding the time and physical space to manage recyclables are additional challenges.

Measuring our waste stream is difficult at best. Because the waste industry generally charges per pickup at most of our locations instead of charging by weight or volume, we must conduct our own waste audits to get a more accurate picture of how full our dumpsters are prior to pickup.

Garnering accurate data for REI's annual waste generation continues to be a challenge. We corrected previously inaccurate assumptions from our first comprehensive waste audit conducted in 2007.

Looking Forward

In 2009, we will continue to refine our data collection to get a more accurate picture of the volume of waste generated and waste stream makeup. We will also pursue more options for reducing waste further up the pipeline, since decreasing the packaging received at our distribution centers and shipped to our stores and customers decreases the waste we need to manage. For example, plastic shipping bags are used to ship apparel to REI's distribution centers and stores. They account for a significant portion of our waste stream, and in many locations cannot be recycled.

We will also work to refine methods for managing waste at our locations to reduce costs. For example, as we learn more about the volume of waste generated at each REI location, we will seek to lower disposal costs by putting smaller dumpsters in place. We will also pursue opportunities to collaborate with other companies located near REI stores to make programs such as composting viable. In addition, we will continue to work with local communities to help bring such programs on line, though this work is on a long timeframe.