King Soopers celebrates Earth Month through nearly 20 million pounds of composting
Colorado's largest grocer is celebrating Earth Month and Earth Day by continuing their efforts to compost goods from 127 stores in Colorado. The King Soopers off of Timberline in Fort Collins is one of those stores that composts scraps and other foods that were not able to be sold or donated.
While most people who visit their local King Soopers or City Market Kroger store are there to purchase the fresh goods offered on the shelves, they may not realize the efforts associates are making to retain the freshness and also recycle.
"(Associates) go through and they look at items and trim off the parts that aren't quite as fresh to make sure that product is fresh and ready to go home with customers. But, we want to make sure those trimmings do not end up in the trash when they could easily go into our composting and be reused down the line," said Jessica Trowbridge of King Soopers.
King Soopers locations are encouraged to mark down items and donate others before composting is necessary. But other items, like trimmings and rinds from watermelons that were cut down and packaged, are set aside for composting.
"We have a lot of organic materials in our stores. Whether you are in the produce department, floral, our deli or bakery teams, they all work with organic products," Trowbridge said.
25% of everything that is sent to the landfill in America is food, while 35% of all foods made in America are thrown away, according to Trowbridge.
"Composting is an effort of all of our associates across the store. We try and compost any materials that may have ended up in the trashcan," Trowbridge said. "I don't think a lot of customers realize that we compost, or how much we compost."
In 2022 alone King Soopers composted nearly 20 million pounds of goods in Colorado. The company then turns and sells the compost in many of their stores to be used in gardens and more.
"Here at King Soopers we are committed to zero hunger zero waste efforts, and what that looks like every day is being responsible in our stores," Trowbridge said.
