World’s leading meal kit company turns to innovative depackaging technology to transform food scraps into nutrient-rich compost and animal feed in Arizona
PHOENIX – Denali, the nation’s largest full-service recycler of organics, and HelloFresh, the nation’s leading meal kit provider, have achieved a significant environmental milestone of repurposing nearly 4 million pounds of food waste in Phoenix. The collaboration transforms food waste into valuable products such as compost and animal feed, fostering a circular economy by reintegrating these outputs into agriculture. Together the companies help combat climate change by diverting food waste from landfills – a major contributor of greenhouse gasses.
This unique food waste diversion program began in 2023, focusing on recycling pre-consumer food waste from HelloFresh’s facilities in Goodyear and Phoenix, Arizona. With logistics provided by Innovative Waste Recycling (IWR), a national waste management company specializing in sustainable solutions, Denali’s depackaging machines cleanly separate the food waste from trash. Leveraging its network of facilities in the Phoenix area, Denali then transforms the food waste into compost that nourishes farms and gardens in the region, and animal feed that offers local farmers a more sustainable feed option.
By the end of the year, Denali, HelloFresh, and Innovative Waste Recycling will have diverted 4 million pounds of food waste from Phoenix landfills. This equates to preventing an estimated 1,307 tons of CO2 greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere, which is comparable to the emissions from driving more than 1.5 million miles in an average gasoline-powered vehicle.
“At HelloFresh, we are on a mission to create a more sustainable food system,” said Jeff Yorzyk, Senior Director of Sustainability, HelloFresh North America. “Denali enables us to repurpose inedible food and instead use it to feed animals and produce compost for gardens and other agricultural needs throughout Arizona. We are committed to further reducing food waste at all our U.S. processing centers and are grateful for partners like IWR and Denali who help us achieve these sustainable practices.”
Denali’s advanced machinery does the previously labor-intensive work to mechanically separate cardboard, plastic, and other packaging from food. These are ingredients that cannot be placed in HelloFresh meal kits due to quality issues – typically food scraps resulting from produce, dairy products, and bread, as well as other ingredients that are too close to their expiration dates.
Denali then mixes the resulting clean stream of organics with green waste such as lawn clippings and tree limbs, to create more than 20,000 tons of nutrient-rich compost in Phoenix each year, which is enough to fill one million one-cubic-foot retail bags of soil.
“HelloFresh is an innovator in disrupting the traditional food supply chain with its sustainable business model and tremendous efforts in reducing food waste throughout their processing centers,” said Denali Chief Revenue Officer Ilia Kostov. “Denali is proud to be their recycling partner in the state of Arizona where our collaboration demonstrates the potential to revolutionize how we recycle inedible food for the benefit of communities and the planet.”
Denali’s operational scale enables the company to recycle organic waste from HelloFresh’s production centers in the Phoenix area. Consumers and shoppers can purchase compost created from food scraps recycled by Denali and HelloFresh in stores around the area.
About Denali
Denali is a leading organic recycling company on a mission to replenish the Earth by repurposing waste. Our work is essential to keeping water clean, reducing the need for new landfill capacity, building soil fertility, helping farmers be more resilient, and reducing society’s reliance on fossil fuels. Our services and products touch thousands of acres, hundreds of locales, millions of tons of material, and nearly every person who purchases and consumes food in the U.S.
About HelloFresh
HelloFresh is the world’s leading meal-kit company, providing customers with fresh, high-quality ingredients to cook delicious meals at home. By delivering pre-portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes directly to customers’ doors, HelloFresh helps busy individuals and families enjoy home-cooked meals without the hassle of meal planning and grocery shopping. HelloFresh was voted the Most Trusted Meal Kit Delivery Service in America from 2021 through 2023 by Newsweek. For more information, visit www.hellofresh.com or follow HelloFresh on Facebook, X, Instagram, or TikTok.
