ShopRite Honors Earth Day Every Day

Keasbey, NJ (April 22, 2022) With a 40-plus-year history of supporting sustainability in stores and investing in communities, ShopRite continues to work on a variety of important efforts to reduce food waste, increase recycling, protect wildlife, and provide for a greener future while also supporting dozens of organizations doing important work to protect the environment.

“ShopRite supports local organizations and sustainability efforts because our store owners and associates live where they work and care deeply about their communities. It’s not uncommon to find ShopRite associates volunteering at a local food bank, community garden or beach cleanup,” says Robert Zuehlke, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility for ShopRite.

Check out a  video on ShopRite and Earth Month in ShopRite’s newsroom and read more about some of the sustainability efforts ShopRite helps advance in the community.

Tree Planting
ShopRite is working in partnership with One Tree Planted to create a more sustainable future by helping plant 25,000 saplings in areas where our stores operate.  ShopRite supports efforts by One Tree Planted to plant local, native tree species in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland.

Pollinator Garden
ShopRite supports America’s Grow-a-Row in its mission to positively impact as many lives as possible through volunteer efforts of planting, picking, rescuing, and delivering free fresh produce to people in need. ShopRite recently worked with America’s Grow-a-Row in their creation of a bee and pollinator garden at the organization’s Pittstown, NJ farm. The pollinator garden helps increase crop yields for fruits and vegetables harvested annually at the America’s Grow-a-Row farm.

The Bald Eagle Project
ShopRite supports the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey’s (CWF) Bald Eagle Project that works to help eagles overcome challenges that include loss of their natural habitat.  Over the last two decades, ShopRite has donated $100,000 to the CWF to protect eagle habitat. In 1982 there was only one active nest in the entire state. In 2020, there were 220 active nests, and 248 pairs of monitored bald eagles that produced 307 hatchlings.

Reducing Food Waste
ShopRite is dedicated to food donation and composting as ways to reduce waste. ShopRite donates more than 5,000 tons of fresh food annually, and in 2020 stores successfully diverted nearly 20,000 tons of food waste from landfills. ShopRite’s efforts to keep food waste from landfills was recognized by Organix Recycling, the largest food waste recycler in the U.S., when Organix presented ShopRite with its inaugural Pioneer Award in 2019.

Recycling
ShopRite has operated its own recycling facility for more than 40 years, recycling more than 2.6 million tons of materials since its creation in the late 1970s. The commitment to recycling today extends across our supermarkets, with dedicated recycling bins at all stores and a new focus on Own Brand products, many of which feature a special How2Recycle® label developed by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. The organization’s easy-to-read How2Recycle® label is an important part of ShopRite’s sustainable packaging efforts. The label is appearing on many new ShopRite Own Brands items including Paperbird™ home-cleaning products and Bowl & Basket™ food and beverage products.

Green Teams
ShopRite stores are also home to more than 100 Green Teams, many of which participate each year in ShopRite sponsored community and in-store cleanups efforts.  More than 55,000 volunteers have dedicated time to Earth Day Challenge-community cleanups over the past decade.