From the Supermarket News daily email newsletter:

AURORA, Colo. (November 11, 2005) - A Wal-Mart supercenter here will recycle used cooking oil to help heat the store, and turn fresh produce, deli, meat, bakery and dairy food waste into compost. The experiments are two of 50 environmentally friendly measures being tested in the supercenter it opened Wednesday. It's the retailer's second ecologically-friendly experimental store; the first one opened in July in a warmer climate, McKinney, Texas. When heat is required, the cooking oil that's been used to fry chicken in the deli will be collected and burned with used motor oil from the store's Tire and Lube Express area in a waste-oil boiler. The generated heat will be directed into the store's heating, ventilation and radiant floor heating system. It's expected to reduce the store's use of natural gas by just under 22,000 therms per year, according to Wal-Mart. The store's produce, deli, meat, bakery and dairy food waste will be separated from other waste, compacted and delivered to A1 Organics, Eaton, Colo., where it will be turned into compost, which will be available for purchase in the store.

For reference, the U.S. DOE's Energy Information Administration estimated that an average Midwestern household would use around 990 therms over last year's heating season.
Wal-Mart's efforts are fairly impressive. One further suggestion: Wal-Mart could use its waste cooking oil to fuel its fleet with biodiesel. I'd like to see these new stores, but even if they went union they would still be too annoying to shop at. One final suggestion, Wal-Mart: unionize your unwashed masses of customers.

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Posted by erik to HipSmart at 11/11/2005 09:40:22 AM