Waste Management

REWE Group places a great emphasis on avoiding refuse and on recycling for economic as well as ecological reasons. The quantity of waste produced within the company in Germany and Austria stands at a total of about 500,000 tons per year. The lion's share was made up of paper and cardboard, cellophane plastics, wood and metal scrap. Together with the single-use beverage packaging returned for deposit, these materials account for over 61 per cent of all refuse. These are completely recycled. Since in addition also the food waste and so-called waste for further recycling produced at the Group's stores are being recycled, the total recycling rate stands at around 92 per cent.

Organic waste and waste for further recycling are utilised for their material contents or to produce energy; food refuse is converted to electricity and distance heating in biogas plants without producing CO₂, for instance. In this way the company saves almost 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. And: The quantity of energy regained from the biogas is sufficient to supply electricity to 7,500 three-person households for a year.

REWE Group is also committed to avoiding refuse. For example, fruits and vegetables are shipped in multi-use transport boxes made of durable plastics. REWE’s GROSSVERBRAUCHER-SERVICE (Commercial Wholesale Customer Service) also reduces packaging materials by using multi-use and mass packing such as bulk deposit packaging for vegetable oils.