Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) announced Tuesday that it's teaming up with Mill Industries Inc. to tackle one of retail's messier problems: what to do with all those banana peels, carrot tops, and bruised apples that never make it to the grocery aisle.

How It Works

Whole Foods Market will become the first retailer to install Mill Commercial, an automated, high-capacity food recycling system that does something clever with back-of-house waste. Starting in 2027, fruit and vegetable scraps from store operations will get transformed by Mill's technology into a nutrient-rich ingredient for chicken feed. And here's where it gets interesting: that feed goes directly to Whole Foods' private-label egg suppliers, creating what's essentially a closed loop from store scraps back to store shelves.

To make this happen, Amazon put money behind the idea through its Climate Pledge Fund, investing in Mill to support the technology's deployment across Whole Foods locations and potentially beyond.

This marks the grocery industry's first in-store food waste conversion system, a noteworthy development in a sector that generates massive amounts of organic waste. The partnership fits squarely into Whole Foods Market's broader sustainability mission and pushes the company closer to its target of slashing food waste by 50% by 2030.

What the Companies Are Saying

"Until now, there has been no advanced technology solution to tackle the problem of food waste at commercial scale. With Mill Commercial, we are combining our innovative hardware with data and insights powered by AI to make it easier to dramatically reduce food waste in the grocery sector and beyond, turning what was 'waste' into a resource we can use," said Matt Rogers, Cofounder and CEO of Mill.

Thomas Selby, Investor at the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, explained the appeal: "Utilizing Mill's intelligent, connected, and distributed infrastructure helps customers reduce food waste, scale a more circular supply chain, and achieve greater operational efficiency. We've been following Mill since inception and are thrilled to invest now to support the development and deployment of their commercial technology at Whole Foods Market and beyond."

Amazon (AMZN) shares were up 0.03% at $222.60 during premarket trading on Tuesday.