Counting only the stores and warehouses Carrefour run themselves, Carrefour are estimated to produce about 730,000 metric tonnes of waste in 2026 (1.6 billion pounds). That is around 2,000 tonnes every day.
That is below the 800,862 tonnes Carrefour measured in 2025, because the group sold their Italian and Romanian businesses. Franchised Carrefour shops are not counted at all.
Carrefour's name hangs over 15,719 stores, yet their waste report covers only the ones Carrefour run themselves, 3,278 at the end of 2025. By our estimate those stores and the warehouses behind them will still throw out roughly 730,000 tonnes in 2026.
Carrefour's annual waste totals (2020-2026)
Carrefour publish a yearly total for the waste their own stores and warehouses produce. The table below runs from 2020 to our estimate for 2026, with what changed in the count each year.
| Year | Waste (tonnes) | What changed in the count |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 730,000 | Italy and Romania sold |
| 2025 | 800,862 | Cora stores added, Romania back in |
| 2024 | 681,043 | Romania and part of Spain left out |
| 2023 | 671,100 | Some Italian supermarkets left out |
| 2022 | 587,000 | Belgium left out, Taiwan sold |
| 2021 | 672,000 | Nine countries, Taiwan included |
| 2020 | 729,000 | Nine countries, Taiwan included |
Note: 2020 to 2025 are Carrefour's measured totals from their universal registration documents. The 2026 figure of 730,000 tonnes is our estimate, the 2025 total minus the share of the Italian and Romanian businesses Carrefour sold.
Each row is measured on that year's set of countries, so the change from one year to the next is not a like-for-like trend. The two most recent changes explain most of the movement.
Why Carrefour's waste jumped 17.6% in 2025
The 2024 total left out all of Romania and part of Spain, 68,134 tonnes that Carrefour could not yet sort into the new reporting categories. Added back, 2024 comes to about 749,000 tonnes.
The rest of the rise, about 7%, came in the first year Carrefour counted the 60 Cora hypermarkets they bought in France in July 2024.
Why our 2026 estimate for Carrefour is lower
Carrefour sold their Italian business on 1 December 2025 and their Romanian business on 30 June 2026. Their reporting rules leave out any business sold during the year, so neither country will be in the 2026 total.
Italy and Romania made up 7.6% of Carrefour's 2024 sales and 10% of the floor space in the stores Carrefour run. Taking those shares out of 2025's 800,862 tonnes gives 740,000 and 721,000 tonnes, and we use the midpoint.
Who are Carrefour?
Carrefour began in 1959, when Marcel Fournier, who owned a shop in Annecy, teamed up with the Badin-Defforey grocery wholesale business in Lagnieu. Four years later they opened France's first hypermarket, at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois south of Paris.
That first store had 2,500 square metres of self-service shelves and 400 free parking spaces. Today the group is run from a head office in Massy, also south of Paris.
These are the numbers that set the scale of Carrefour at the end of 2025:
- Stores: 15,719 under Carrefour banners in more than 40 countries.
- Run by Carrefour: 3,278 of those stores, in seven countries. The rest are franchised.
- Sales: €82.1 billion in 2025, about half of it in France.
- People: 298,604 employees.
Only one Carrefour store in five is in the waste count
Carrefour run two kinds of stores. Integrated stores belong to Carrefour. Franchised stores carry the Carrefour name but are owned by independent shopkeepers or partner companies, and their waste stays out of Carrefour's total.
The table below shows how the stores split in each country at the end of 2025.
| Country | Stores Carrefour run | Franchised stores |
|---|---|---|
| France | 615 | 5,944 |
| Spain | 510 | 1,085 |
| Belgium | 83 | 620 |
| Romania | 438 | 40 |
| Poland | 193 | 544 |
| Brazil | 718 | None |
| Argentina | 721 | None |
| Partner countries | None | 4,208 |
Note: Store counts at 31 December 2025 from Carrefour's 2025 universal registration document. Partner countries are run entirely by franchise partners, in France's overseas territories, elsewhere in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The stores Carrefour run are 21% of the network but 53% of its floor space, because big stores are far more often run by Carrefour. In France, 38% of Carrefour hypermarkets are franchised against 98% of convenience stores.
Where a local council collects a store's waste, Carrefour put an estimate into the total rather than a measured figure.
Where Carrefour's store waste ended up in 2025
Carrefour hand their waste to specialist recovery companies for streams such as cardboard, plastic and organic waste that can be turned into compost or energy.
The table below shows what happened to the 800,862 tonnes in 2025.
| Route | Tonnes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Recycled | 496,409 | 62% |
| Prepared for reuse | 18,989 | 2% |
| Recovered in other ways | 128,144 | 16% |
| Sent to landfill | 148,119 | 18.5% |
| Burned without energy recovery | 2,172 | Under 1% |
| Disposed of in other ways | 7,029 | 1% |
Note: Figures from Carrefour's 2025 sustainability statement, with hazardous and non-hazardous waste added together. Recovery in other ways covers routes such as turning waste into energy.
Carrefour's own breakdown also shows the following.
- Recovery rate: 80% of the waste was recycled, reused or recovered, up from 73% in 2024 and 67% in 2020. Carrefour's goal was 100% by 2025.
- Landfill: 148,119 tonnes, close to one tonne in five, was buried. Landfill sits at the bottom of the waste hierarchy, the EU's order of preference for handling waste.
- Hazardous waste: 4,692 tonnes, under 1% of the total.
How Carrefour halved their food waste
Unsold food is the part of their waste Carrefour have set the firmest goals on. Food waste costs a supermarket twice, once in lost sales and again in disposal.
Carrefour's food waste record comes down to four numbers.
- 51% less food waste per square metre than in 2016. Carrefour's goal was 50% by 2025, measured against the size of their stores.
- 72,937 tonnes of food lost or wasted in 2025. That is down from 81,190 tonnes in 2024, according to Carrefour's circular economy report.
- 30,890 tonnes of food donated. That is food Carrefour gave away in 2025 across all their countries instead of throwing it out.
- 60% less by 2030. Carrefour's new goal, against the same 2016 starting point.
To get there, Carrefour use sales forecasts to order less surplus, track sell-by dates with digital tools and sell food close to its date at a discount. They have also extended the best-before dates on some products, so they can stay on sale for longer.
The packaging Carrefour put on the shelves
Store waste is only what Carrefour throw away themselves. The packaging on the goods they sell ends up in household bins instead, and Carrefour report that too.
The table below shows the packaging Carrefour counted on the products they sold in 2025.
| Material | Tonnes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Plastic | 113,521 | 38% |
| Glass | 77,678 | 26% |
| Paper and cardboard | 74,792 | 25% |
| Metal | 28,090 | 9% |
| Other materials | 2,060 | Under 1% |
Note: Figures from Carrefour's 2025 universal registration document, 296,142 tonnes in total. Carrefour do not say whether the total covers every brand they sell or mainly their own-brand range, where their packaging goals apply.
Plastic is the largest share and the one Carrefour are cutting. Their new goal is 10% less virgin plastic in single-use Carrefour-brand packaging by 2030 compared with 2024, about 15,000 tonnes.
Carrefour also run reusable packaging schemes. Loop by Carrefour, where shoppers return containers to be washed and refilled, was in 369 French stores at the end of 2025.
Whoever puts packaged goods on the French market pays toward collecting and recycling them under France's EPR rules. In 2025, 226 Carrefour stores in France had a packaging collection point and there were 234 reverse vending machines.
Which of Carrefour's 2025 targets did they meet?
Carrefour set several waste and packaging goals with a 2025 deadline. The table below sets each one against the result.
| Goal for 2025 | Result | Met |
|---|---|---|
| All store waste recovered | 80% | No |
| Food waste halved against 2016 | 51% less | Yes |
| All Carrefour-brand packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable | 67% | No |
| 30% recycled material in packaging | 24% | No |
| 20,000 tonnes of packaging avoided since 2017 | 22,873 tonnes | Yes, in 2023 |
| €300 million of loose and reusable-pack sales by 2026 | €363 million | Yes, a year early |
Note: Results from Carrefour's 2025 universal registration document. The packaging results leave out the former Cora and Match stores.
Carrefour say recovering all their waste "remains a difficult goal to achieve". In its place they have set a new goal of 10% less unrecovered store waste by 2030 compared with 2024.
Why Carrefour's packaging goals fell short
For packaging, Carrefour point to "the technical difficulty of recycling certain types of packaging such as tubing", to patchy data from smaller suppliers and to uneven sorting and recycling systems across their countries.
One number moved the wrong way. The share of recycled plastic inside Carrefour's plastic packaging fell from 23.6% in 2024 to 13.4% in 2025, even as recycled material across all packaging rose to 24%.
Frequently asked questions about Carrefour's waste
Below are the seven questions people ask most often about Carrefour's waste.
How much waste does Carrefour produce each year?
About 730,000 tonnes in 2026 by our estimate, from the stores and warehouses Carrefour run themselves. Carrefour measured 800,862 tonnes in 2025, before the sale of their Italian and Romanian businesses took both countries out of the count.
Does Carrefour's waste figure include franchised stores?
No. Carrefour count waste only from their own warehouses and the 3,278 stores they ran themselves at the end of 2025. The franchised Carrefour shops, more than 12,000 of them, are left out.
Why did Carrefour's waste rise in 2025?
Mostly because more of the business was counted. The 2024 total left out Romania and part of Spain, 68,134 tonnes, and 2025 was the first year the former Cora hypermarkets in France were included.
How much of Carrefour's waste goes to landfill?
148,119 tonnes in 2025, about 18.5% of the total. Most of the rest, 62%, was recycled, and another 18% was reused or recovered in other ways, such as being turned into energy.
How much food does Carrefour waste?
Carrefour reported 72,937 tonnes of food lost or wasted in 2025, down from 81,190 tonnes in 2024. Measured per square metre of store, their food waste was 51% lower than in 2016.
How much plastic packaging does Carrefour sell?
Carrefour counted 113,521 tonnes of plastic packaging on the products they sold in 2025, out of 296,142 tonnes of packaging in all. Glass and paper or cardboard make up most of the rest.
Did Carrefour meet their 2025 waste targets?
Partly. Food waste was halved against 2016 as planned, but only 80% of store waste was recovered against a goal of 100%. Just 67% of Carrefour-brand packaging was reusable, recyclable or compostable, against a goal of 100%.
