NextFin News - In a landmark announcement released on December 16, 2025, Mill Industries Inc., a waste prevention technology company, in collaboration with Amazon, revealed a breakthrough partnership to launch an industry-first food waste innovation at Whole Foods Market stores across the United States. Scheduled for rollout starting in 2027, Whole Foods — a leading specialty grocery retailer owned by Amazon — will implement Mill Commercial, an automated, high-capacity food recycling infrastructure designed to process fruit and vegetable scraps generated by back-of-house operations.
This cutting-edge solution uses advanced camera vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to measure and identify food waste in real time, enabling smarter inventory management and waste reduction strategies. The processed organic waste undergoes a dehydration procedure that can reduce the original waste volume by up to 80%, resulting in dry, odorless, shelf-stable Food Grounds. Rather than discarding these byproducts, Whole Foods will convert them into nutrient-rich chicken feed ingredients destined for its private-label egg suppliers, thereby closing the loop in a circular supply chain model.
Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund has invested in Mill to support the full commercial development and deployment of this technology, emphasizing the fund’s commitment to innovative climate solutions across Amazon’s business units. Jason Buechel, Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery and CEO of Whole Foods Market, highlighted the collaboration as a transformative step towards achieving the retailer’s sustainability target to cut food waste by half by 2030. Mill’s co-founder and CEO, Matt Rogers, emphasized the operational and financial benefits of Mill Commercial, noting its potential to set a new grocery industry standard by integrating hardware innovation with AI-driven analytics.
The food waste challenge is a well-documented problem with both environmental and economic consequences. In the U.S., the USDA and EPA estimate that approximately 30-40% of food supply is wasted, contributing significantly to landfill volume and greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional waste management incurs substantial costs through hauling, infrastructure, and lost resource value. By reducing waste volume on-site and repurposing residuals into high-value feedstock, Whole Foods expects to lower transportation costs, enhance food safety, and stabilize supply chain costs for suppliers and customers.
This initiative marks a pioneering application of AI-powered waste measurement at commercial scale within the grocery sector. Beyond the immediate environmental impact, the system provides data-driven insights to optimize ordering patterns and inventory control, translating sustainability goals into measurable operational efficiencies. These capabilities align with broader macro trends of increasing demand for sustainable retail practices, circular supply chain models, and technology-enabled resource optimization.
Looking ahead, the integration of Mill Commercial may catalyze wider adoption of on-site waste processing technologies across grocery chains, foodservice providers, and institutional kitchens. As regulatory pressures mount around waste reduction and environmental reporting, and as consumers increasingly prioritize sustainability, such innovations are likely to become a competitive differentiator. The collaboration also showcases a strategic alignment between Amazon’s technology innovation ethos and Whole Foods’ environmental stewardship mission under the current U.S. President’s administration that supports economic and environmental initiatives simultaneously.
From an investment perspective, the backing by Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund underlines the increasing financial viability and strategic importance of sustainable tech startups in the agri-food sector. The sizable reduction in waste volume potentially translates into lower operational expenses and carbon footprint, reinforcing the strong ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) profile for all stakeholders involved. This technology could also unlock new markets for nutrient-rich feed ingredients, creating economic incentives for agricultural sustainability.
In sum, Mill and Amazon’s joint deployment at Whole Foods broadens the frontier for sustainable retail and smart waste management. By transforming food scraps into meaningful resources, this initiative embodies a systemic solution to food waste, leveraging AI, IoT (Internet of Things), and circular economy principles. As the rollout progresses, its impact on grocery supply chains, environmental metrics, and retail economics will be closely observed by industry players and policymakers alike.
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