ENTERPRISE
Setting the Green Standard:
Mountain Rose Herbs’ Award-Winning
Sustainability Strategies
By Kat Schuett
Every week, Snake Harrington digs through the trash at Mountain Rose
Herbs manufacturing facility. No, he’s not homeless or a dumpster diver
looking for discarded treasure. He is the company’s “waste coordinator,”
charged with the important task of making sure that nothing is sent to the
landfill that could be
recycled, reused or
composted. Harrington is
a key part of Mountain
Rose Herbs’ Zero Waste
Program.
This program is so effective
that Mountain Rose Herbs’ entire
40,000-square-foot operation,
comprised of over 60 employees,
discards about the same amount
of trash as just one typical four-person family. On average, the
total waste—which includes
everything from production,
shipping and receiving, to mar-
keting and administration, and even the employee kitchen and bathrooms—comes to just a
little more than two 38-gallon trash cans per month. Compare this to 3300 gallons of trash a
month generated by most manufacturers of its size (including Mountain Rose Herbs prior to
implementing this program), and you’re talking about a 97 percent reduction in waste.
