What's the next frontier in sustainability? How can you get greener? Ask Chad! He brings an entrepreneurial spirit to managing Earthbound Farm’s sustainability programs. He led our conversion to using 100% post-consumer recycled PET plastic, and he’s always on the lookout for sustainable new ideas in packaging, power, water, waste and recycling.
Ask Our Experts
Q:
Why doesn’t Earthbound Farm make its plastic clamshells from corn-based plastic (PLA)?
A:
At Earthbound Farm, we’ve chosen to make our clamshells out of PET made from post-consumer recycled plastic — those plastic soda, juice and water bottles that you recycle.
We’ve evaluated PLA extensively since it was introduced, and we’re encouraged by the strides that have been made by NatureWorks (the company, owned by Cargill, that developed the material) to continue to improve its performance and environmental footprint.
For our clamshell packaging, we believe we can progress towards truly sustainable packaging by maximizing the recycled content of our materials as well as maximizing the recycling rates for those materials — and PET plastic is the most-recycled plastic material. We believe that using and creating a market for post-consumer recycled materials like PET is one of the best sustainability options available today, and this belief is validated not just by our internal analysis, but by numerous outside studies that show how using recycled content dramatically reduces all environmental impact factors for a product. Creating a larger market for PCR materials can help reduce the burden on our landfills; we hope that other companies will see the value in adopting packaging with PCR content, and that consumers will seek out PCR packaging when they shop. -Chad
