Online Organic Grocery Retailer, Thrive Market, Goes Zero Waste!

If you’re like us, you’re constantly thinking of ways to reduce your trash consumption and lower your environmental impact. While picking up plastic goods and packages may be convenient, just because trash is out of our sight, doesn’t mean it disappears. Rather, all of it adds up in our oceans, landfills, forests, and more, resulting in major environmental problems. With over 300 million tons of plastic produced and nearly 8.8 million tons getting dumped into the oceans annually, it is clear that our disposable products are anything but.

All of this trash doesn’t just impact our quality of life in the way of litter and trash heaps, it’s also harming animal species. When it comes to plastic, there are around 700 marine species currently facing with extinction due to entanglement, Pollution, and ingestion.

Thankfully, many individuals, as well as companies are working towards reducing their trash consumption. Take for instance, Thrive Market, which helps make healthy living accessible to Americans by providing the most popular organic and non-GMO groceries at 25-50 percent off normal retail prices. Thrive Market is committed to sustainability and working towards becoming a zero waste company by committing more than 90 percent of their waste to a recycling stream or reusing it in some way. On Wednesday, November 15th, National Recycling Day, Thrive announced that they have achieved that goal and are now zero waste from their two fulfillment centers.

So, how does such a company achieve zero waste? John Winkels, Thrive’s Senior Vice President of Supply Chain explains in a recent interview, “We do lots of training and put out multiple color-coded containers for categories like cardboard, plastics, wood scraps, things like that. We even do routine dumpster dives to see what’s going out in the trash!”

John notes that if other organizations embrace a zero waste lifestyle, it will force the industry to change. “We don’t do this to have a plaque to put on the wall. It’s about making our business run as efficiently as possible and to generate revenue from that waste stream rather than have it be an expense.”

Thrive Market is not only dedicated to achieving zero waste and encouraging their members to do the same, the progressive company also works towards healing our broken food system that places too much emphasis on cheap meat and dairy by focusing on food and products that promote regenerative and restorative farming practices.

Interested in learning more about Thrive Market? In a recent episode of #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias, Gunnar Lovelace, founder and co-CEO of Thrive Market discusses how he hopes to transform the food system by making healthy, organic food affordable and accessible to everyone, while maintaining the highest levels of sustainability.

To learn more about how you can use less plastic in your everyday life, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!

Image Source: Thrive Market