By virtue of its sheer size, anything Walmart does usually produces a ripple effect. In the case of the company's zero waste program, that ripple effect created an entire industry.

The world's largest retailer needed to find a home for its food waste that didn't involve a landfill. No such infrastructure existed that could handle that kind of volume so Walmart built one, with the help of a recycling firm from Texas that assists large companies with disposing of unwanted materials, such as used motor oil and expired meat.

The effort created hundreds of green jobs and set the stage for other retailers to take advantage of the organic waste recycling infrastructure. Walmart announced last week that its zero waste strategy had cut more than 80 percent of the waste sent to landfills in California, due in part to the organic waste program co-developed by Quest Recycling Services, based in Frisco, Texas.

"The amazing thing about Walmart's request to us was they specifically, from day one, said, 'We do not want you to have this as an exclusive program with just us. We want you to find other customers, find other grocery store chains that will participate and become a part of this infrastructure,'" said Quest Recycling CEO Brian Dick. "That probably sounds a little bit strange to some schools of thought, but to them it was crystal clear. They knew they were starting a new industry. They knew they were providing the infrastructure for something that wasn't there. They knew the only way to lower their costs was to get more people involved."

Here's the backstory: Quest Recycling, which employs about 40 people, had pre-existing contracts handling Walmart's grease, rendering and automotive recycling programs. The company was charged with increasing the value of these materials, such as through the creation of systems that better collected and cleaned used oil. In the case of expired meat, Quest paired Walmart with animal rescue parks and zoos across the U.S. that rendered the expired meat products into feed.

Early in the business relationship, Quest earned points by answering Walmart's challenge to boost the value of scrap tires. "Together with their environmental group and buying group, we were able to put together a store program where they're selling recycled tire mulch in their stores," Dick said. "We were able to provide the certification that the tires from (one) store went through and became mulch that ended up on the shelf at another store."

Walmart later approached Quest for another challenge after failing to find a solution for what to do with food waste produced in its 4,400 Walmart and Sam's Club stores and supercenters in the form of hot foods from its delis and outdated or returned food.