Safeway Expands Reusable Product Container Usage to Produce

June 14, 2012

Safeway Inc. has transitioned to using reusable product containers (RPCs), instead of corrugated boxes, to ship many types of produce from the farm fields, through the distribution network to the stores.

The transition eliminates the use of more than 17 million pounds of corrugated boxes, the company reported.

Safeway store image Safeway has used RPCs for decades in many of its consumer brand categories, including bread, milk and soda. The company began testing RPCs in its distribution system for fresh wet-pack produce — fruits and vegetables kept on ice until they reach the store — in early 2010.

Making the transition for produce was a more complicated process than for other products because, to make it effective and decrease cardboard usage, Safeway's distributors and grower partners also had to commit to the switch. The transition continued throughout 2011.

The company's major supplier of RPCs, IFCO Systems, said Safeway's implementation of RPC usage to decrease waste was the fastest and most aggressive program rollout to date.

"This expansion into produce is a natural extension of best practices in logistics," said Tom Nartker, Safeway’s vice president of transportation. "Safeway will continue to look for opportunities to expand the usage of RPCs into additional categories to have an even greater positive environmental impact."

In addition to keeping non-recyclable shipping containers out of the supply chain, RPCs can be stacked higher and more densely than traditional boxes, allowing for more efficient shipping and requiring fewer trips to transport the same amount of product.

The switch also avoided the harvesting of approximately 114,000 trees and reduced greenhouse emissions by 37,518 metric tons.

GRD Views: While widely used in Europe for produce distribution, adoption in North America is fairly low. It will be interesting to see if others follow suit. -- John Failla for Green Retail Decisions

Read These Related Articles:

Keywords: reusable product containers, waste reduction

« View All Articles

Guest Columns

Key Themes Emerge at FMI Sustainability Summit

Areas of focus included making the business case for sustainability, leadership development and radical collaboration.

Source: Food Marketing Institute

What's Your Sustainability Elevator Speech?

A new FMI toolkit offers concise, customizable strategic language to help executives effectively articulate the business case for sustainability in less than 60 seconds.

Source: Food Marketing Institute

On a Mission to Reduce Food Waste

FMI, GMA and the National Restaurant Association are developing an aggressive strategy that will direct more edible food to the hungry and waste away from landfills.

Source: Food Marketing Institute

See All Guest Columns »