Food Processors Beginning to See Benefits of Going Green With Packaging

Naked Juice claims to be the first nationally distributed beverage to start using the recyclable reNEWabottle.

The term "green packaging" is a bit of an oxymoron. The very existence of a package presumes impact on the environment during the package's life cycle and perhaps beyond. But, recognizing that we need packaging to protect food between the point of manufacturing and the point of consumption, processors are focusing on greener packaging.

The initiatives include virtually all package formats, from glass jars to plastic bottles and paperboard cartons to flexible packages. Brands attached to greener-packaging projects include the iconic; pantry standards like Heinz Classico and Frito-Lay Tostitos; natural foods brands like Naked Juice, CalNaturale and Stonyfield Farm; even seasonal favorite Girl Scout Cookies.

This year, for the first time, the Girl Scouts are selling cookies packaged in a film-overwrapped tray rather than in a paperboard carton containing a tray. The organization is testing the new, greener package for Thanks-A-Lot cookies. By eliminating the carton, the switch will reduce the use of paperboard by 150 tons, enough to fill 14 garbage trucks.

ABC Bakers, Richmond, Va., which bakes the Thanks-A-Lot cookies, initiated the packaging changeup after receiving queries at its website from scouts asking about the environment and best use of natural resources.

"The reason ABC is trying this out is because girls were asking for it," says Molly Smart, director of public relations and marketing with the Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama, Mobile, Ala. "And they've certainly been excited about it."

Scouts Speak Up for Greener Packaging

Sustainable packaging is a hot topic not just for adults, but also for kids, tweens and teens. Food Processing asked the Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama to share their views on earth-friendly packaging, including the new packaging for Girl Scout cookies (see main story). Here's what the girls, ages 6 to 13, had to say:

• Hope Staton, Daisy Girl Scout and kindergartener: "If the landfill got too full, we'd have to make a new one and I wouldn't want 14 truckloads of trash in my yard."
• Brianne Staton, Brownie Girl Scout: "Reducing waste is important to me because if we get too much waste in the landfills, it will pollute the air and water and hurt people and animals."
• Kimberly Brown, Junior Girl Scout: "It's like the Earth is saying ‘thanks a lot' for safe packaging!"
• Sarah Staton, Junior Girl Scout: "Girl Scouts is about setting goals and helping the environment. Making a more Earth-friendly [package] is important to me because this is a fun way for Girl Scouts to help improve our environment and make the world a better place. Reducing trash by 150 tons is reducing the size of landfills, and that is better for everyone."
• Cheyenne Hayes, Cadette Girl Scout: "I like to know that in Girl Scouts we take extra steps to fulfill our Go Green mission and help save the environment."

It's becoming increasingly important to look not just at the package but at the entire life cycle of the package – and that includes the manufacturing practices of the package's supplier. Eagle Flexible Packaging, Batavia, Ill., for example, lays out a menu of green options for customers, which includes the use of water-based inks and adhesives, renewable films from plant starches or corn and compostable materials – as well as the company's own recycling of its ink waste and film scrap.

"Water-based inks and adhesives contain less than 5 percent volatile organic compounds, compared to solvent-based inks and adhesives that can contain 45-65 percent VOCs," says Millie Nuno, director of marketing. That reduces the carbon footprint of whatever is the end product.

Glass goes lighter
Glass packaging also is getting greener. When H.J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, decided to introduce a 44-oz. "value size" version of Heinz Classico pasta sauce, the company worked with its glass supplier to develop a lighter-weight glass jar.

Standard glass jars for products of this magnitude weigh 17.5 oz. Heinz's greener jar, which weighs 16.3 oz., delivers a 7.2 percent weight savings. The lighter weight yields more efficient shipping and a reduced carbon footprint.

"We worked with Heinz to come up with this lightweighted design," says Angela Luring, marketing manager, food category, O-I North America, Perrysburg, Ohio.

"Sustainability is a high priority for Heinz as it is for us."

But not all greener glass packages are custom designed. Frito-Lay, Plano, Texas, uses a lightweighted stock jar for 16-oz. Tostitos quesos, salsas and dips. The original weight of the stock jar was 9.17 oz., but O-I was able to reduce that weight to 8.17 oz. Saving an ounce on each jar adds up quickly for high-volume items like these.

O-I also has come out with a line of lighter weight wine bottles that look the same as conventional wine bottles. The so-called Lean+Green bottles are available in weights ranging from 11.6 to 16 oz. (weight of the unfilled bottle), and they are up to 27 percent lighter than standard wine bottles. In addition to being lighter to ship, the new bottles require less energy and a reduced amount of raw materials for manufacturing.

Bronco Wine Co., Ceres, Calif., is using O-I's 11.6-oz. claret and burgundy bottles for its Charles Shaw wines to reduce weight and improve the brand's carbon footprint while protecting flavor and maintaining a traditional look and feel.

Naked bottles
Monrovia, Calif.-based Naked Juice Co., which makes all-natural products, continues to green its packaging. The company announced in November that it would start filling its 10-, 15.2- and 64-oz. juice and juice smoothies into the reNEWabottle, which is made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET).

The company started using the recyclable reNEWabottle in 2009 for 32-oz. products; Naked Juice claims to be the first nationally distributed beverage to do so. Previously, the brand used high density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles for its 10- to 32-oz. products.

According to the company, switching to rPET bottles will reduce Naked Juice's virgin plastic consumption by 7.4 million lbs. per year, save more than 12,000 cubic meters of space in landfills and reduce the company's packaging-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 35 percent.

In contrast to the old, opaque HDPE bottles, the rPET bottles offer a clear view of the brightly colored Naked Juice products. The company prides itself on being "transparent" about the ingredients it uses in its products, and the high-clarity bottle reinforces that message. Using rPET packaging also aligns well with the company's brand mission of making superior products while minimizing environmental impact.