This document summarizes waste management practices at grocery stores in New England. It discusses two in-store food waste processing systems - the G2E and ECO2 systems. Both macerate food waste and send it to on-site tanks before anaerobic digestion on local farms. The G2E system also adds water. Pilots of both systems were discussed, along with challenges around maximizing waste diversion.

2.  Our region covers Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the
eastern part of Connecticut
 38 stores total -30 in Massachusetts
 4 Facilities- Bakehouse, Commissary, Seafood
Processing Facility, and Distribution Center
 Huge variations between rural (Hadley MA) to
suburban (Framingham) to city (Symphony)

3.  Two self contained 35 yard compactors – one for
Compost and one for Trash
 Baler for OCC cardboard
 Container for Single Stream Recyclables
 Designated areas set aside for items we backhaul to
our DC – Pallets, Fish Vats, Bales of OCC, stretch
plastic, # 5 plastic, redeemables for stores with RVMs,
etc.
 Food Donation bins - designated area in receiving

5.  Totes for Compost

7.  Installed in our Andover store in June 2014
 First grocery store in US to have this system
 We’ve since installed in our River St.
Cambridge store
 We have plans to install in 2 city stores –
Symphony and Charles River
 We plan to open a new store with this
system in place in 2016

9.  Table with Grinder
 Requires electrical and plumbing
 We put FRP on wall behind, and hand sink
nearby
 Need room around table for someone to
work and a cart to be parked
 Very clean, quick system overall

13.  No room inside for tank at either
Andover or River St, so it was put
outside
 This required insulation to ensure it
doesn’t freeze in the winter – which
adds to the size of the tank
 We are planning to put some tanks
inside which won’t require insulation

17. AndoverTank
Tank is sized for
estimated food
waste load, so it
gets emptied
about every 14
days. This is
flexible, and in
some cases, we
might end up
with a smaller
tank, that has to
be pumped more
often.

18.  System works well
 Any issues/concerns have been addressed quickly, great
Customer service overall
 It takes all food waste plus some paper (napkins, paper
towels) etc
 We are working with Emerson to find a solution to also
include compostable containers in the future
 We really like the Anaerobic Digester on a local farm
component – great story and also produces energy
 Pricing compared to traditional compost system is roughly
equivalent, and can be better depending on distance from
location to AD (hauling is variable cost)

19.  We put the ECO2 system into two stores in
November – South Weymouth and Wellesley
 ECO2 system was being used in hotels and
produce markets in Texas
 We were the first grocery store to use this specific
system
 Similar technology and system to G2E – unit
macerates food waste, and then sends slurry to
tank.

21.  Primary difference is this system doesn’t add
any water in – so no plumbing is needed,
just electrical
 Nice size unit, doesn’t take up a lot of room
 Added feature of a clear length of pipe so
you can see the waste leaving the unit –
looks cool and also allows you to see if
there’s a problem with it moving along

24.  Because there’s no water added in, the tank is smaller
than with G2E
 Insulation still required when placed outside – which
it was in both of our pilot stores due to lack of space
inside
 Same basic process for being pumped, only difference
is LES has their own trucks and infrastructure whereas
G2E has partnered with Casella
 Same destination – an anaerobic digester on a local
farm – same end product.

30.  From the start, there were certain items that could not
be included – pineapple tops, meat, coffee grounds
 We also were not including any paper
 LES was/is working on upgrading the machine to
include all food waste – and focusing on those
problem areas in particular.
 They made some changes which did improve the
overall performance of the unit.
 There were also some mechanical issues with the units

31.  At 3 months into the pilot, we evaluated our waste
diversion with this system.
 It felt like we’d taken some steps backward, and more
waste was going into our Trash compactor than before.
 Even though they were working diligently on this we
didn’t want to go backwards.
 So we decided to stop using this system until they
could work through these issues and give us a system
that worked for all food waste plus paper.

32.  Our goal is to divert as much as possible from our
Trash stream – we are aiming for Zero Waste at all
locations with maximum diversion
 These systems do a great job of dealing with food
waste in a clean, efficient manner – but there are some
things you can’t put in that you can include in compost
 Biggest challenge for us is our waxed cardboard –
which is currently included in our compost loads
 We are working on finding a different solution to this
so we can expand the G2E system into more stores.