Furniture and home goods store Wayfair improved its packaging recyclability and implemented a new zero waste goal in 2023, according to the corporate ESG report it released last week.
The new zero waste goal is to divert 90% of waste that Wayfair produces across its global operations by 2030. In 2023, Wayfair had achieved 42% waste diversion.
“[T]ogether with our partners, we are introducing new processes and waste collection equipment to improve diversion rates and reduce costs,” the report says.
Wayfair’s white glove delivery service further helps to reduce waste, according to the report. The service entails delivery employees carrying purchased items into a consumer’s home, unpacking them and assembling them. Employees then bring the packaging back to Wayfair facilities for recycling and disposal, rather than the consumer needing to handle it. Plus, as the “white glove initiative has grown, we launched a pilot program to recycle the increasing amount of Styrofoam returned to our facilities,” the report says.
The company achieved 90% recyclability for packaging it uses, up from 82% the prior year, including boxes, wraps, filler and mailers. Wayfair primarily attributes the 8% jump to its expanded use in the U.S. of paper-based mailers that contain 100% recyclable content and using more paper-based, recyclable filler packaging in Germany and the UK.
“Our procurement team also includes requirements for recycled content and recyclability in their processes,” the report says. The percentage of recycled content in paper-based packaging procured by Wayfair globally reached 34% in 2023.
Two years ago, the company announced its first public goal: to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 63% by 2035, compared to a 2020 baseline. In 2023, those emissions increased 0.3%. The report indicates that uptick is “driven by our business growth.”
