It wasn’t Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s that raised the bar for food eco-consciousness this week. Instead, two local Santa Barbara Albertsons have made national news by becoming the first supermarket retailers in the nation to achieve zero-waste status. The special qualification means that the stores now keep nearly all of their waste out of the landfills. To “go zero,” Albertsons created a three-pronged approach to sustainability: recycling, food donations, and composting. The end result? 95 percent of the store’s waste is reused or recycled.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/dec/06/albertsons-go-seriously-green/