Wal-Mart Scores Suppliers

Sunday, August 01, 2010

For major retailers like Wal-Mart, the number one buzz word in 2011 will be sustainability. They have committed significant resources to improving the sustainability of their organization through reductions in packaging, recycling activities, and energy efficiency. Much of their gains in this area has to come from their suppliers. Those suppliers are forced to review and improve their own sustainability to continue or grow as a supplier. and the Northeast and will no doubt move through the rest of the country. The main principle of the proposed resolution is to hold the manufacturer of any product responsible for the collection, processing, and recycling of all materials they use for packaging the final product.

The shifting of the costs to recycle packaging to the manufacturer and away from the municipality is intended to encourage producers to develop and deploy more easily recyclable packaging for their products.

It could be a huge burden on a company who uses certain foams and plastics in their packaging. The infrastructure to collect materials alone would be a financial hardship on any company. If the cities utilize their current processes to collect materials, they will likely institute huge tax penalties to offset the cost of their entire recycling program. It would make the development of recyclable packaging critical to all manufacturing companies.