Stater Bros. Introduces ‘Green Waste’ Composting Program in All Supermarket Locations

First ‘Green’ Load will arrive at Company’s Distribution Center on Earth Day, April 22, 2009

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., April 21 /PRNewswire/ — To honor their commitment to the environment, not only on Earth Day but all year round, Stater Bros. has partnered with Community Recycling and Resource Recovery Inc. to turn organic waste into compost that can be sold to area farmers.

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The first “green” load will arrive at Stater Bros. Distribution Center, located at 310 South Tippecanoe Avenue in San Bernardino, California on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. This program will be rolled out to all 166 Stater Bros. Supermarket locations within the next three weeks.

On a daily basis, items such as produce trim and cull, waxed cardboard, wooden crates and paper will be loaded on pallets and returned via Stater Bros. delivery trucks to the Company’s Distribution Center. At the Distribution Center, the recyclable material will be loaded into a 21-ton compactor which will also be picked up daily by Community Recycling and transported to their composting facility.

Stater Bros. estimates that their new composting program will eliminate 20,000 tons from landfills each year. In a landfill, six tons of organic waste creates one ton of greenhouse gas, but a well managed compost facility does not produce any greenhouse gas. Therefore, the Stater Bros. Composting Program will eliminate over 1,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

Jack H. Brown, Chairman and CEO of Stater Bros. Markets stated, “Stater Bros. believes in doing the right thing for the right reason. Protecting our environment is the ‘right thing’ and the ‘right reason’ is so future generations can live in a better world.”

Stater Bros. commitment to the environment goes beyond Earth Day. The Company has established an employee Green Team with representatives from all areas of the Company. The Green Team is committed to reviewing, selecting and implementing business practices that promote the long-term well being of the company, the community, and the environment that we all share. The Company’s other green programs include recycling plastic bags and cardboard, printing the Company’s weekly ads on recycled paper, and participating in California’s Voluntary Demand Response Program to reduce energy consumption at store level when demand is high.

About Stater Bros.

Stater Bros. was founded in 1936 in Yucaipa, California, and has grown steadily through the years to become the largest privately owned Supermarket Chain in Southern California and the largest private employer in both San Bernardino County and Riverside County, with annual sales in 2008 of $3.74 billion. Last year, Stater Bros. contributed over $15 million in support of nonprofit organizations in the communities it serves, with an emphasis on worthy programs that benefit hunger relief, health and nutrition, and education. The Company currently operates 166 Supermarkets, and there are over 19,000 members of the Stater Bros. “Family” of Employees.

STATER BROS. MARKETS…SERVING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FAMILIES FOR OVER 73 YEARS

    Contact:
    Susan Atkinson
    Vice President Corporate Affairs
    Stater Bros. Markets
    (909) 733-5038

SOURCE Stater Bros.