Kroger makes strides in recycling and upcycling

The Kroger Co. has expanded its Simple Truth own-brand lineup with products made from upcycled ingredients and reached a milestone in recycling plastic waste.

Cincinnati-based Kroger said Friday that it has added Simple Truth Seeded Multigrain Bread and Multigrain Quinoa Bread to the free-from brand’s sustainable lineup. The designed-from-scratch bread is blended with upcycled barley, wheat and rye grains, with each variety topped with such ingredients as sunflower, flax, black sesame, pumpkin seeds and quinoa. Both products are Upcycled Certified by the Upcycled Food Association (UFA).

“Upcycled” refers to repurposed foods and ingredients that otherwise would have ended up in the food waste stream. The UFA, which Kroger joined in 2022, encompasses a global network of more than 225 businesses focused on accelerating the upcycled food economy to create new, high-quality products from surplus food and foodstuffs.

Other Simple Truth Upcycled Certified products include Plant-Based Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix, Plant-Based Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, Plant-Based Sugar Cookie Mix and the new Simple Truth Gluten Free Banana Bread Mix, which Kroger said is made with upcycled okara flour. In total, Simple Truth—a more than $3 billion brand—has over 1,500 items, with the the list of unwanted ingredients including more than 101 artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and sweeteners.

Kroger’s Our Brands roster represents an approximately $28 billion annual business, which executives have said would make Kroger the ninth-largest U.S. CPG company. Overall, the portfolio encompasses nearly 20 brands and offers more than 14,000 items. Four labels are billion-dollar brands, including Simple Truth, Private Selection, Home Chef and Kroger—the latter being the largest by far, with sales of $15 billion.

The Simple Truth Upcycle Certified breads are blended with upcycled barley, wheat and rye grains, Kroger said. / Photos courtesy of The Kroger Co.

Also as part of its Zero Hunger | Zero Waste sustainability program, Kroger said it has recycled more than 1 million pieces of flexible plastic product packaging from its “Our Brands” private-label portfolio. The company described itself as the “first retailer in the world” to provide a “free and easy” flexible plastic packaging recycling program for its own-brand products in collaboration with TerraCycle, which began in 2020.

The program gives customers free, prepaid shipping labels to mail in flexible plastic packaging from Kroger private-brand products for recycling. Products eligible for plastic recycling—in categories such as pantry, snacks and candy, frozen, meat and seafood, dairy, produce, beverages, bakery, household items, pet supplies and baby care, among others—are listed on the company’s website, where customers can sign up for the program. Kroger said the recycled materials are used to build playgrounds that the company donates youth and community organizations.

“We are continually looking for creative and innovative solutions to support our vision of creating zero-waste communities,” Juan De Paoli, vice president of Our Brands for Kroger, said in a statement. “Our customers sharing in that commitment by recycling packaging and purchasing products made with upcycled ingredients, alongside our efforts to advance sustainability, makes important progress toward eliminating waste and creating healthy, thriving communities.”

Starting in 2019, Kroger worked with TerraCycle in an exclusive grocery retail partnership to pilot a reusable packaging system for leading consumer brands. Called Loop, the circular online shopping platform—developed by TerraCycle—offers products packaged in reusable glass or metal containers, which are shipped directly to consumers in a specially designed tote bag. After use, the products are collected free from consumers’ homes and then cleaned, refilled and reused.

Early last year, Kroger expanded the Loop pilot at its Fred Meyer chain, offering products with Loop reusable packaging at 25 brick-and-mortar stores in metropolitan Portland, Ore. Fred Meyer customers purchasing Loop-packaged items return the empty packaging to a collection bin at each participating store. The reusable containers had begun appearing in selected Fred Meyer stores in the fall of 2021.