Hannaford announced this week that everyone of its 183 stores will either donate or move all food that would end up in a landfill.

Hannaford has pledged to send no food at all to any landfill.

How is Hannaford able to avoid throwing food away?

According to News Center Maine, Hannaford said that they are doing it by watching closely how they order and management at the store level. Employees are trained on how to handle food to avoid any damage. Plus each store is following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Food Recovery Hierarchy. That moves unused food to those with food insecurity and the rest goes for animal feed and energy conversion efforts.

How much food did Hannaford divert from landfills in 2020?

Ready for this? They were able to NOT SEND 65 million pounds of food waste to landfills last year. They realize that they have a big responsibility with their role in the food supply chain. Keeping Mother Earth healthy is a top priority. They know that eliminating food waste helps everyone.

How did Scarborough's Agri-Cycle help?

Hannaford partnered with Agri-Cycle, a food waste recycling company in Scarborough. They help turn food that humans and animals can't eat, into energy. The biggest reason expired food would end up in landfills is the packaging. Agri-Cycle has state-of-the-art de-packaging machines that separates the food from the container.

How does Agri-Cycle turn food into energy?

Agri-Cycle picks up inedible food, and they have these anerobic digesters and that turns it into electricity and they sell it back onto the grid. This anerobic diigestor is at Agri-Cycle’s sister company, Stonyvale Farms in Exeter, Maine. That is a family owned farm for five generations. This process also makes a byproduct of liquid fertilizer and bedding for the farm’s dairy cows. It's the ultimate win-win.

Kudos to Hannaford for being a leader in this area. Hannaford has always been in the forefront of donating food to local foodbanks, and now they are the leaders in managing their waste.