Teams throughout TJX work to implement cost-effective strategies and processes to manage the many different types of waste materials resulting from our operations. We are doing this in several ways, including by eliminating operational waste where feasible and by taking steps to maximize the reuse and recycling of materials in our stores, distribution centers, and corporate offices. These efforts support our global goal of working to divert 85% of operational waste from landfill by 2027.¹

Our global approach to managing operational waste includes efforts to:

• Maximize reuse and recycling of operational waste, of which the majority is corrugate boxes

• Collaborate with our waste-haulers and certain vendors and suppliers on solutions that improve our ability to divert operational waste materials from landfill

• Update and enhance our communications on sortation and recycling procedures within certain stores

• Address single-use plastics in our operations

Progress Against Waste Diversion Goal

• Global Operational Waste Diversion Rate:^1,2 81%

• Our efforts to divert operational waste from landfill in Fiscal 2024 helped to incrementally reduce our reported GHG emissions (Waste Generated in Operations – Scope 3, Category 5) by 5,300 metric tons of CO₂e. This represents a 5.6% year-over-year reduction in reported waste-related emissions compared with Fiscal 2023.³

Maximizing Reuse & Recycling in Our Operations

We have many programs across our global business that support our efforts to reuse and recycle our operational waste in our stores, distribution centers, and home offices. Recycling programs for common items, like cardboard, plastic, paper, aluminum, and glass, have been introduced across all of the geographies where we have stores, and we are working to find new ways to reduce and recycle difficult-to-recycle items, like polystyrene.

In Fiscal 2024, we continued to accelerate initiatives to increase reuse and recycling rates at our stores, ARRCs, and distribution centers.

• Over the years, the flexibility of the ARRC program has enabled us to test new initiatives as we strive to increase the amount of difficult-to-recycle material that can be included in our recycling stream. For example, in Fiscal 2024 in the U.S., we piloted a new process for sorting recyclable plastics, including plastic film, in our ARRC-serviced stores. In testing, the new process resulted in a significant year-over-year increase in the amount of plastic material returned to our ARRCs for recycling. As a result of this and other ongoing initiatives, our U.S. ARRC network was able to send an estimated 1,660 tons of plastic film to be recycled in Fiscal 2024. With the help of our partner, a portion of the plastic film we recycled is being used to help create plastic film collection receptacles like the ones we have been installing in the back rooms of our stores.
• In the U.S. in Fiscal 2024, we began testing larger, more resilient recycling receptacles to hold recyclable cardboard in our ARRC-serviced stores and transport it to our ARRC locations. We expect to roll out the larger cardboard recycling receptacles to additional U.S. stores in Fiscal 2025.
• In the U.S., we have continued to expand the number of stores participating in our infrastructure-supported recycling initiatives. For example, in Fiscal 2024, we began to integrate our Sierra stores into our U.S. ARRC program to expand their recycling capacity.
• We have initiated efforts to consider the reuse and recycling of our in-store signage. For example, to improve the recyclability of holiday signage used across its stores, in Fiscal 2024, TJX Canada switched to signs printed on corrugated cardboard instead of difficult-to-recycle foam core and utilized other recyclable materials. As a result, TJX Canada was able to improve the recyclability of its all-store holiday signage package by more than 90%, by weight, between Fiscal 2023 and Fiscal 2024. Additionally, in the U.S., our stores keep a “permanent sign library” of in-store signage that can be reused again and again. By the end of Fiscal 2024, the majority of TJ Maxx stores had been reusing their sign libraries for as long as ten years and were ready for a refresh. TJ Maxx has initiated the process of rolling out updated permanent sign libraries to all of its stores and plans to utilize 100% post-consumer-recycled material for the approximately 16 million reusable paper signs that will make up this collection.
• TJX Europe is now backhauling plastic film from all of its stores in the U.K., Ireland, and Germany, to be processed for recycling.

One of our focuses in recent years has been to increase the reuse and recycling of corrugated cardboard in the U.S. and other regions. Corrugated cardboard comprises the majority of our operational waste. The ability of our ARRCs and certain distribution centers to accept and process backhauled material, like corrugated cardboard, helps to prioritize its reuse and recycling. In the U.S., a single corrugated cardboard box can be used to deliver merchandise from our distribution centers to our stores up to three times before it is retired and recycled. In the U.S. in Fiscal 2024, over 35.8 million reusable units of cardboard packaging were sent back from our stores through our network of ARRCs to be returned to distribution centers for reuse. For cardboard that could not be reused, our U.S. Associates helped us recycle more than 97,000 tons of cardboard through our ARRC network in Fiscal 2024.

Addressing Single-Use Plastics

We have efforts in place in certain regions to identify and consider opportunities to remove single-use plastics from our operations and are working with select suppliers to reduce single-use plastic packaging where feasible.

• In certain distribution centers, we have been working to find ways to reduce or replace certain plastics that traditionally protect merchandise as it is shipped to our stores. TJX Canada has removed bubble wrap pouches ordinarily used to protect merchandise being delivered to stores. In addition to being recyclable, TJX Canada has found that the fiber-based material being used in its place has reduced merchandise damage and can be reused by stores to protect merchandise carried home by customers. In the U.S., for many years, we have utilized a more easily recycled, corrugated box insert for the packaging of liquid products during shipping from distribution centers to stores; this effort has resulted in an estimated 12 million fewer plastic bags being used across our distribution network each year.
• TJX Canada launched a pilot program at the end of Fiscal 2023 to work directly with certain vendors in a specific merchandise category to utilize fiber-based alternatives for expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) packaging. TJX Canada was pleased with the efficacy and results of this initiative and is exploring opportunities to extend it to additional styles within this merchandise category where feasible.

• TJX Europe has formed an internal Plastic Working Group to identify, strategize around, and trial opportunities to reduce single-use plastics in various areas across its business. Initiatives in Europe include working to reduce single-use plastics in offices, processing centers, stores, and e-commerce operations; swapping plastic tape for paper tape in its e-commerce home deliveries; switching to plastic-free soap sachets and cleaning products in the restrooms and cleaning operations of certain stores and the European home office; and removing single-use plastic refrigerated beverage bottles from stores.
• In the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, we have eliminated almost all single-use plastic food takeout containers in our Home Office cafeterias and instead utilize predominantly compostable or reusable containers.

TJX is also working to address single-use plastic merchandise carry out bags within certain geographies. Globally, our stores sell merchandise carry-out bags that are reusable and contain recycled materials.

Supporting Merchandise & Packaging Programs

Certain regions have programs in place to help support the recycling and reuse of merchandise and certain merchandise packaging.

For example, in the U.K. and Ireland, TK Maxx’s long-running Give Up Clothes For Good campaign invites customers and Associates to donate their pre-loved quality fashion and homeware at their local TK Maxx. The pre-loved items are donated to Cancer Research U.K. and Enable Ireland where they are managed for potential reuse. In addition to the donated goods, TK Maxx contributes unsold goods. As of the end of Fiscal 2024, the campaign has donated more than 2.3 million bags of goods, helping to raise millions of pounds for Cancer Research U.K. and Enable Ireland. Read more about this initiative on our Patient Care & Research page.

Additionally, TJX Canada partners with Habitat for Humanity to donate unsold products to people in need. In Fiscal 2023, TJX Canada began partnering with Pact to offer a beauty product packaging collection program at select Winners stores. This program was expanded to all Winners stores across Canada in Fiscal 2024. The Pact program enables customers to drop off used beauty packaging in-store, which is then sent to Pact where it is reused or recycled, as feasible.

Reducing Water Consumption

Although TJX’s business operations are not water intensive, we believe managing water usage is consistent with both our commitment to environmental sustainability and our low-cost operating philosophy. To that end, we work to monitor our water usage and identify opportunities to improve water efficiency where feasible across our operations. In certain locations, we also utilize collection systems to use water more effectively; for example, at our processing centers in New South Wales, Australia and Sulechów, Poland, we harvest rainwater to supply water to the bathrooms and irrigation systems.

In the supply chain, our TJX Vendor Code of Conduct encourages our merchandise vendors to conserve and protect resources, such as water and energy, and to also take into consideration environmental issues that may impact their local communities. Environmental concerns are incorporated into our merchandise vendor social compliance training materials as well, introducing high-level concepts of environmental sustainability, like water conservation. This training includes specific cost-saving, water conservation recommendations for our suppliers that they may consider implementing at their production facilities. We plan to continue including similar relevant water facts during future training sessions.