Misfits Market’s Impact report highlights sustainability gains from Imperfect Foods deal, private-label
Since launching in 2015, Misfits Market has saved more than 210m pounds of food from landfills, including products that do not meet retailers’ appearance standards, finished goods that were pulled from retail shelves because of new packaging, and products made from food and beverage ingredients that would normally be thrown away (i.e., upcycled products), according to the company’s recently published 2023 sustainability report.
Consumers saved 5.01 pounds of food from the landfill, 196.79 gallons of water, and 6.94 pounds of CO2 emissions on average per Misfits purchase, through diverting food that would normally have gone to the landfill, the report stated.
“One of the impacts that we included in our report is actually that the impact of food waste and loss in terms of greenhouse gas emissions is five times the global aviation sector, and that came from a UN Environment Programme report that came out two or three weeks ago,” Hartley said.
Boosting sustainability beyond food waste prevention
Misfits recycled and reduced packaging waste and streamlined operations further with last year’s acquisition of Imperfect Foods, an online retailer selling produce that did not meet retailers’ standards for appearances, Hartley said.
Last year, Misfits reused and recycled more than 2.7m pounds of packaging and collected more than 10m pounds to date from its packaging return program, which initially launched at Imperfect Foods, Hartley said. The retailer partnered with Recyclops to recycle the silver liners in its egg carton liners, and Dispatch Goods to sanitize its gel packs for reuse, she added.
Also, Misfits is working to certify its five facilities as TRUE Zero Waste Gold certified, which means that "90% to 100% of all the materials that come into [those] sites that could otherwise be considered wastes are going to somewhere other than landfill," Hartley said. Misfits achieved the first of the TRUE Zero Waste Gold certifications last November.
Misfits reduces CO2 emissions that would normally be associated with e-commerce by maintaining its fleet of vehicles and designing efficient routes that cut gas consumption, Hartley explained. The retailers' delivery fleet emitted 3,151 tons of CO2 emissions less than the US average for the same trips to the grocery store, according to the impact report.
“From our facilities to the customer, we have always set it up so that you have a set delivery day and that means you [and your neighbor] are going to get orders on the same day so that our vans are not crisscrossing the whole metropolitan area to deliver orders.”
Private-label opportunity to create more sustainable products
Misfits upcycled thousands of pounds of food that would have gone into the landfill through its private-label brand Odds & Ends. The company saved 181,000 pounds of oranges and 78,250 pounds of rice with its White Jasmine Rice, which contains 10% broken kernels, from going to the landfill or animal feed. Also, the company prevented roughly 5,200 pounds of chocolate from going to waste with its Organic Wonky Chocolate Bar Pieces.
“I'm actually really proud that the majority of our impact on the package side is coming through our private label because that means we are doing our work even a couple steps upstream to connect with the vendors and [ask them,] ‘Where are you seeing waste and in your supply chain or in your manufacturing or on the field? And how can we create a product together?’”
Additionally, Misfits is consolidating and shifting Imperfect Foods private-label products to Odds & Ends, including chocolate-covered pretzel pieces created from broken pretzels, Hartley explained. These pretzel pieces normally would be discarded during the manufacturing process, “but nobody cares that they are broken once they are coated in chocolate,” she noted.
Misfits will add new private-label items to its portfolio that further promote its mission of reducing food waste, the report stated.
