Denali, Walmart combine on depackaging effort

Denali Water Solutions, a national provider of organic materials diversion and recycling services, is collaborating with Walmart to roll out depackaging services designed to help improve the food waste recycling process at more than 1,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations nationwide.

The depackaging technology aims to help drive operational efficiencies at stores operated nationwide by Walmart. Based on early testing, Denali says the service has increased the volume of potentially reusable organic content recovered from participating Walmart and Sam’s Club locations by more than 60 percent and reduced locations’ compactor trash by an estimated 12 percent.

The program has launched in over 1,400 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in more than 16 markets across the country including Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, Indianapolis, Phoenix and cities across New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, with rollout to continue nationwide into 2025, according Denali, which is based in Russellville, Arkansas.

“As a people-led, tech-powered retailer, Walmart is focused on driving innovations that build operational efficiency, improve store associates’ experience, and help reduce waste,” says RJ Zanes, Walmart’s vice president of facility services.

“Denali’s depackaging technology can help enable us to turn millions of pounds of potential food waste into useful products each year while allowing our associates to devote more time [to] serving our customers.”

The depackaging technology and processes separate food from its packaging materials, including plastic and cardboard, producing a stream of organic material that can be turned into animal feed, compost or converted into energy via anaerobic digestion (AD).

The services help avoid the process of manually separating food from its packaging, making it easier to recycle and reuse food waste while freeing up time for retail employees. Walmart is one of the first retailers to leverage the newly implemented depackaging capabilities at scale, according to Denali.

“For Walmart, this initiative is an example of how the retailer is tackling operational waste through projects aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of its waste management practices while supporting the company’s sustainability objectives and pursuit of operational waste reduction,” Denali says.

Denali provides depackaging services to thousands of grocers, food manufacturers, distributors and municipalities. The company says its network of depackaging facilities can separate up to 97 percent of all trash from organic food waste, including expired food products, recalled items, food scraps and spoiled deli, bakery and produce. Additionally, the depackaging services can process other food categories including animal products, dry and liquid goods.

“Denali’s depackaging technology is revolutionizing the way in which food manufacturers, distributors, retailers—and the cities in which they operate—can reduce food waste,” says Ilia Kostov, Denali’s chief revenue officer. “We are proud to work with the leading retailer, Walmart and Sam’s Club, to help reduce food waste at scale while simultaneously enabling the circular economy."

After piloting the program in multiple markets over several years, Denali began its nationwide depackaging services rollout in 2023 in Phoenix, where the city diverted 2,000 tons of food waste generated from events and activities related to the Super Bowl.

According to Chicago-based not-for-profit group ReFED Inc., the United States generated about 77.6 million tons of food waste in 2022, and about 3.9 percent of that comes from retailers’ handling of damaged or expired items. Of the food waste generated by retail, 51 percent that year went to landfills and 39.5 percent went to compost or AD facilities.

Denali says its depackaging network has the potential to greatly increase the amount of food waste that is diverted from landfills.

Annually, Denali says it currently converts more than 500,000 tons of food waste into marketable products. The depackaging machines deployed in cooperation with Walmart will enable Denali to process 750 tons of food waste each day to create compost, fertilizer, animal feed and energy.