Sure, you’ve always know Genpak as the place for quality rigid food packaging solutions. And you’ve known us for our cutting edge product developments on that front as well. Our BPI Certified compostable Harvest Fiber line of dinnerware and hinged containers are a huge hit with restaurants, colleges and foodservice operations looking for alternative packaging. And our Green Restaurant Association endorsed Clear Hinged Deli line along with our Harvest Starch & Smart Set Pro lines have also been successful with customers looking to stay within the 3R’s approach for food packaging which is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. (okay that was the blatant commercial lead in to the main point)

But you may not have know we also have a flexible packaging side as well. We produce square bottom bags, window bags and zipper bags for many industries including bakery, retail, pet food and food processing. Since it’s us and you’ve come to expect big things, we are very happy to announce a major breakthrough in compostable bag technology. Working in conjunction with our friends at Innovia Films we have helped to develop the Boulder Canyon Foods compostable chip bag! Click here for Innovia’s press release on this exciting new material. Long story short, it’s a compostable substrate that does the job and won’t make you go deaf. For those of you who don’t get the “deaf” joke, Sun Chip has recently pulled their compostable bag because it was deemed as too noisy by consumers. If that really is the reason, this tells us that consumers want a transparent transition from traditional to alternative substrate choices. Or, at the very least, they want as little noticeable changes as possible. Some consumers went as far as creating a Facebook page called “I can’t hear you over the Sun Chip bag”. Others posted You Tube vidoes going on about the noisy bags. Some of them were actully pretty funny.

I think the main lesson that should be taken away from this though, is that the consumer rules roost (as it should be). If they don’t like it, they won’t buy it.  Period, end of story. And they may even take their dislike of a product to the cyber streets as is the case with Sun Chips. Check it out on You Tube. Just type in Sun Chips Bag. There are pages upon pages of videos basically griping about how loud that bag was.

For our part, we here you consumers…loud and clear (over the bag). Hey we’ve taken our lumps too. That Harvest Fiber line I plugged earlier is actually our second generation of Harvest products. The first line was okay, but it didn’t really hold up to hot food applications. We did have sales to some niche markets where hot food wasn’t on the menu, but wholesale acceptance was never obtained. So we went back to the drawing board and Harvest Fiber was born. Microwave safe, hot foods, cold foods and still compostable. I’m sure it won’t be too long though and there will be more new materials that will be even better to use. One thing is certain. We’ll be leading that charge to keep our loyal customers and soon to be customers up to date with the very latest options.

The image to the right encompasses our mission in the sustainable effort and has been designed to appear on our 100% compostable show bag debuting this month!

Each new Affordable, Earth-Friendly line is Sustainable (designed to meet current needs without compromising the needs of future generations), using the 3R approach of Reduce (practice of doing the same or even more with less – excellent way to lessen the burden of consumption), Reuse (ability to use packaging more than once – for the same or new purpose) & Recycle (local level curb side collection/compostable: back to nature).

Utilizing one or more elements of the 3R approach to minimize waste, please find below, the defining attributes allowing each new line to be considered sustainable…

Harvest Fiber (Bowls, Plates, Containers, Tray)

Reduce: Produced using 100% natural and annually renewable resources, reducing the dependence on non renewable resources! Recycle: BPI Certified Compostable! Returned back into nature in the form of rich, useful compost used for soil enhancement.

Harvest Starch (Bowls, Plates, Containers & Utensils)

Reduce: Produced from a hybrid material that replaces 60% of the polypropylene resin with natural and annually renewable starches!

Smart Set Pro (Rectangular & Round Containers/Trays with Lids)

Reduce: Produced with revolutionary textured material allowing up to 30% part weight reduction, reducing the draw on resources.

Reuse: Top shelf, dishwasher friendly, ideal for additional use at home!

Recycle: Based on local municipality.

* Added bonus: Harvest Fiber, Harvest Starch & Smart Set Pro are each microwave safe *

Deli &Supermarket Containers

Reduce: Produced with up to 50% post consumer recycled content (PCR), reducing the requirement for virgin material!

Reuse: With an easy to use lid, these are perfect to use more than once – for the same or new purpose!

Recycle: Made using PET (Polythylene Terephthalate), the most recycled form of plastic available today – #1 recyclable!

PET Cups

Reuse: For smoothies, cut fruit, parfaits, cut vegetables, salads and so much more!

Recycle: As the name suggests, produced using PET (Polythylene Terephthalate), the most widely recycled form of plastic available today! #1 recyclable!

Flexible Packaging (Bags & Laminates)

Reduce: Uniquely produced to reduce draw on non renewable resources by using recycled materials!

Reuse: Available for use time and time again!

Recycle: Select, unique substrates are compostable – returned back to nature in the form of rich, useful compost for soil enhancement!

Oh, and please don’t hesitate to request a complimentary sample package!!!

To contact us, click on the Home field at the top of the screen to visit our Home Page, choose Contact Us from the option list, complete the required fields and press SEND.

We also may be reached by phone, 1-877-670-0066.

Feel free to post a comment, we value your thoughts!

Phone Rings…

Genpaker – Hello this is Genpak

Caller – Hi my name is Jane and my 10 year old son attending our local school that is using your 5 compartment serving trays in their cafeteria.

Genpaker – Hey that is fantastic!

Caller – Well not so fast. His science teacher has told the class that the Styrofoam used to make these trays is not biodegradable and are clogging up our landfills. He also said the trays could leach toxins into the foods and make him sick. What do you have to say to that?

Genpaker – Okay let me start by saying the material used for these school trays is called foamed polystyrene. Styrofoam is actually a registered trademark of Dow Chemical.

Caller – Oh okay I didn’t realize that.

Genpaker – No problem. Anyway it is certainly true that foamed polystyrene is not biodegradable in a landfill environment. But did you know that pretty much nothing is biodegradable in modern landfills?

Caller – Really?

Genpaker– Yes. Most people think of landfills as giant compost piles where stuff thrown in just sort of goes away or biodegrades. But a better description of a landfill would be a giant mummifier where things just sort of stay as is. Did you know there have been digs done on landfills where they have found carrots that still snap and 5 year old newspapers that are still legible?

Caller – Huh

Genpaker– Yep. Also one of the reasons landfills are made like this is to reduce the amount of methane dispersed into the atmosphere from landfills and the amount of leachate that makes its way into our aquifers.

Caller – What is leachate?

Genpaker – It’s water that has sifted down through the landfill that has picked up particles and other nasty stuff.

Caller – Ah

Genpaker – Anyway, so even if the school system did use a biodegradable or compostable option, which by the way we do carry in our Harvest Fiber line, and continued to toss them into their solid waste stream, they’d still end up in the same landfill where they stay for a very long time.

Caller – Okay but what about the issue of these products clogging up the landfills?

Genpaker – Well I can tell you that according to a 2006 EPA study, plastic, single use foodservice items only accounted for 1.2% of all material heading to a landfill. The main item filling up landfills was actually paper and paperboard products.

Caller – How about that?

Genpaker – Right. And remember what we talked about regarding things not biodegrading? Now on to the whole safety issue.

Caller – Yes this is a big concern for me as I don’t want little Johnny growing a third eye or anything.

Genpaker – Rest assured he won’t grow a third eye from eating off our school tray. In fact a study was done on single use food packaging versus reusable or permanent foodservice ware that showed the single use products had significantly lower microbial levels. Also, since foamed polystyrene is such an excellent insulator, foods stay at optimal temperature longer thereby reducing food spoilage.

Caller – So you are saying they are totally safe.

Genpaker – Yes that’s exactly what I’m saying. Here’s one other thing to consider. Let’s say your school system did decide to switch away from single use school trays to a permanent tray option. They would need to construct or retrofit a special room to house an industrial strength dish washing system complete with all the wiring and piping. They’d need to staff that room, pay for the electricity to heat the water and run the washer, pay for the industrial strength detergents used and pay for the massive water consumption of a large washer, not to mention the waste water generated from such a washer. Now consider that a case of our 10,500 school trays costs…say around $18.00 for a case of 500. That translates to costing about 4 cents to per student. What do you think the permanent tray solution costs? I’ll bet it is more than 4 cents. That could translate to higher taxes for you.

Caller – Okay okay you made your point. I guess the foam school trays really aren’t bad for the environment or for the students after all.

Genpaker – That’s right. I’m glad you decided to pick up the phone and find out for yourself right from the horses mouth. If I may suggest, the American Chemistry Council produced a fairly decent pamphlet that covers most of what we talked about here today. You should get a copy and send it to school with your son. Since this topic came from his science teacher, I’m sure he or she would trust information coming from them as a valid source. Thanks again for calling and feel free to call us any time.

Over the last couple of days I attended a conference put on by Nature Works, who is a domestic supplier of PLA. PLA (polylactic acid) is an alternative resin source made entirely from corn and is meant to be used in replacement of PET, OPS and other clear petrochemical based resins. This conference came off the heals of another meeting I attended called the Biopolymers Symposium, which had a very similar theme to the aforementioned NW conference.

Both events were fairly well attended, and not just by chemists and engineers (thankfully). One message I took away from both events was the goal of many companies to practice and become more sustainable. Sustainability by definition is not rocket science, but to me more of a common sense practice. However the extent to which some companies have embraced sustainable practices does teeter on the verge of mind blowing. Not just the big companies either. I saw most impressive presentations from all sized companies including smaller regional companies, national niche market companies right on up to multi-billion dollar multinational brand name companies.  

Clearly the largest companies have the most aggressive and far reaching game plans due to greater resources.  Once such plan that was talked about was a goal to make a manufacturing facility of one such large company, 100% self reliant.  To be taken totally off the grid for power, water and other utilities.  This wasn’t just some lofty goal on paper to say “look what we are thinking about”, but according to the presentation, well under way to becoming reality.  I can’t go into all the details of everything they were doing, but it was very impressive.  Especially the water reclamation part.  This is because the facility was located in an arid location and the company used a great deal of water in their particular process.  They not only figured out how to clean and purify the water, but to repipe it back into their process to be used again and again.

There was one common detail that each and every company who talked about sustainability initiatives stressed though.  That was a return on their investment.  Let’s face it, companies are in business to turn a profit.  No profit and the doors close.  These forward thinking companies each had a clear objective to turn their sustainability programs into a healthier bottom line.  They not only wanted to be better stewards of the environment but wanted a stronger company as a result of it.  Again, there were lots of examples provided showing where and how a payback and return was realized, but I think the most important aspect that each organization practiced was a top down approach to sustainability.  In each and every case that was presented, the company’s top management was completely committed to their program and, they got all their empoylees on board.  You can have an excellent plan on paper, but if the mother hen is not fully committed, the chicks will surely scatter.  These companies were not afraid to step back and take a critical look at themselves to ask “how can we do this better and what can we do differently that will not only  enrich the environment, but enrich our profits as well”.

I urge you to do the same.  Whether you have or work for a company as well as in your personal life.  Ask yourself the questions.  Do you really need to drive to the market for that gallon of milk, or could you walk or ride a bike?  Turn off the lights when you leave a room and power your computer down when you’ll be away from it.  These may seem like little things but just remember, one or two tiny snowflakes falling won’t add up to much, but millions falling can enact a blizzard of change.

March.  Now here’s a green month if I ever saw one.  Of course there is  March Madness where I typically loose around 50 green backs in the office pool.  St. Patrick’s Day is good for several pints of my favorite green lager.  And let’s not forget that Dr. Seuss was born in the month of March.  What’s green about that?  Hello, Green Eggs and Ham!  One other thing is that Uranus was discovered in March.  No there’s nothing green about that.  I just wanted to type Uranus (insert your own crude joke here).

Now that you are thinking green (those of you still on Uranus can come back to us now) let’s talk about our Deli containers.  Crystal clear yes, but green non the less.  I read somewhere that people like bullet points, so instead of a paragraph of info, here’s the bullet point version:

• Made from APET which is #1 curbside recyclable
• Made using up to 50% post consumer recycled content
• And now is endorsed by the Green Restaurant Association

That’s right, our deli line is now endorsed by the GRA!  If you know the GRA you’ll know they only endorse products that meet there very strict standards and guidelines.   Restaurants and food service operator can earn up to two points from the GRA by utilizing our Hinged Deli Containers.  This will get them two points closer to becoming a Certified Green Restaurant.  Also, I’m happy to report that our Clear Hinged Deli food containers are the only clear hinged products that currently carry their endorsement.

The other great features of this line are:

• Patented 360° seal
• Patented hinged closure
• Freezer safe
• Works with automated fill & seal equipment

Heard enough?  If not, just shoot us a note and ask for some samples so you may give it your own test.  I’m confident you’ll like what you see.

The Federal Trade Commission defines recycled content materials as those that have been recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream. Recycled content can be broken into two categories. Post consumer and pre-consumer, which may also be referred to as post industrial. Post consumer content, as its name implies, are materials that have been used by consumers. Examples are clear plastic water and soda bottles made from P.E.T. that carry the #1 recycle symbol. Post industrial is scrap that is generated during the normal manufacturing process that is recycled back into its raw material state and used again.

At Genpak, we began producing our clear Hinged Deli products using post consumer recycled (PCR) content back in early 2007. Since then we have expanded that program to include all of our clear APET products.

The EPA states “There’s more to recycling than setting out your recyclables at the curb. In order to make recycling economically feasible, we must buy recycled products and packaging. When we buy recycled products, we create an economic incentive for recyclable materials to be collected, manufactured and marketed as new products. Buying recycled products has both economic and environmental benefits. Purchasing products made from or packaged in recycled materials saves resources for future generations.”

For our part, just in 2009 we used nearly 14 million pounds of post consumer resin for our APET products. To put that into perspective, it is the equivalent of diverting nearly 280 million water bottles from landfills! Breaking it down even further to a customer level, you can say that for every 200 cases of our very popular AD16 purchased, you have helped us divert 17,600 bottles that were destined for a landfill. Not only are our Deli containers made with up to 50% post consumer recycled content, but they are also still #1 recyclable! It’s a win-win.

For more information or to request samples just drop us a line and we’ll get you everything you need to know.

It’s a brand new year and we’ve got a brand new product line to talk about. Before we get into that, let me lay a little ground work if I may. We had a national sales meeting up here in sunny Glens Falls a couple weeks back. After a few of our fair weather sales people stopped complaining about the snow, we got down to business and had a couple productive days. I think the main theme I took away was summed up by a phrase that will reign true throughout this year and years to come. That phrase was, “this is not your mother’s Genpak“. We were challenged to think outside our comfort zone and not to fall back on that comfy security blanket we call the foam hinged container. The gauntlet was laid to sell a greater mix of our ever growing product offering and push the envelope into the markets that will benefit the most from our superior designs and substrates. By the end of the meetings our entire group was pumped up and ready to dive into 2010 with both feet and with a bag full of new products…which leads me to our January spotlight. Harvest Fiber!

Harvest Fiber is our next generation of eco-conscious food packaging products.  Before you ho hum yawn this one away as another Johnny-Come-Lately line of earth friendly products, remember who you are dealing with here! Genpak was first to market over three years ago with a full line of eco products. And, as a leader in the single use food packaging industry and one of the pioneers of “green” food packaging, we wanted to make sure these products could meet our motto of Quality To Go.

Now, what really sets our Fiber products apart from the field is our design. I’m not going to try to mislead you or gloss over facts here. Like everybody else who supplies products made from Bagasse, they are made in China. This mainly due to the lack of supply for that type of raw material here in the US. Please rest assured that we did not partner with the lowest bidder however. We visited, talked with and audited suppliers until we were 100% comfortable with our choice. One of the main reasons we went with who we did was we needed a company that would make products to our own design specifications. In other words we did not buy off the rack as everyone else has done. We took our time and had custom molds made to our spec so the products we did launch, looked and worked just like the Genpak products our customers are used to. If you’ve ever fumbled and cursed at that typical slot and tab type closure that is rampant in the fiber hinged market, you will absolutely love our hinged containers. Why? Because it is our Snap-It style design. Easy to close and stays closed.

Another feature on our Harvest Fiber hinged products that you’ll notice is the stacking rim. Yet another feature left off by our competition, but not over looked by us. Our thought here was, why skimp? This is what the foodservice market is used to so that’s what we are going to do. Other features include:

• GMO free material.
• Non-absorbent finish
• Microwave safe
• BPI certified compostable
• Annually renewable, non food source substrate

For you visual types, to see more pictures of our new Harvest Fiber foodservice products, just follow this link. If it is samples or more information you are after, just drop us a line and we’ll get right back to you.

Let us know what you think. Reply back (make it clean) and we’ll post your comments.

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of bad press regarding packaging, especially foodservice packaging. There have been venomous articles written ranging from packaging filling up landfills to packaging that causes erectile dysfunction (no lie, just saw that one yesterday). Some writings do have valid points, but never really tell the whole story. Take the landfill debate for instance. It is true that most plastic packaging that is properly disposed of in a landfill, will stay there for a very long time. Nobody will debate that. What the folks who write those articles fail to tell their readers is that damn near everything that is disposed of in a modern landfill will also stay there for a very long time to come. This includes organic materials such as food waste, paper and even grass clippings. Why?  Because most modern landfills are designed to keep light, heat and moisture out. These are the very things required to break materials down.  I won’t bore you with all the science behind it, but you can certainly read what Dr. Ramani Narayan of Michigan State University states about landfills. In a nutshell and to paraphrase, landfills are not giant composting sites but rather giant mumifiers. But again, these are facts that enemies of foodservice and other packaging and misinformers who write about packaging won’t tell you.

As for the “plastic food containers are clogging our landfills” statement, here too, you are only being told part of the whole story. According to the EPA statistics for 2007, plastics (that’s all plasticsand not just food packaging) make up only 12.1% of all the material going into the municipal solid waste stream.  The foodservice packaging portion of that is only 1.2%! They go on to state that organics of all things, make up the largest component of the materials. That would be your yard trimmings, paper and food waste. Here again, the naysayers fail to mention that little tidbit because it does not fit into whatever agenda they have.

What they should be talking about are the virtues of foodservice packaging. Here’s a few to ponder. 

Sanitation – Single use food packaging has been proven to be more sanitary than reusable china and glassware. A 2002 study conducted in Las Vegas, NV concluded that 18% of the reusable items tested had higher than acceptable bacterial counts.

Water & Energy Savings – Industrial size dish washing units used by restaurants will consume 2 to 7 gallons of 150°F to 180°F water per minute.  Do the math!

Food Spoilage – Insulated food packaging will keep take-out foods hot much longer which decreases the chance for food being tossed due to inadequate temperatures or food spoilage.

Worker Safety – Most single use foodservice packaging is very lightweight which reduces the risk for accidents such as back injury. It also helps reduce the risks of scratches and cuts that can happen with chipped permanent & glassware items.

Convenience – Many types of food packaging may be washed out and used over and over again in the home place for leftovers storage.  Some, like our Smart Set Pro series are also microwave safe for further home reuse convenience.

So the next time you read an article, blog or other report droning on and on about the ills of such products, do me a favor and just do a little research on your own before passing judgment.  Good sources of information are the  FPI, BPI and EPA.  Or just contact us and ask a question.  I promise, we’ll give you the straight up answer without any spin.

The other evening I was taking a stroll with my wife and we passed a guy who was taking his dog for a walk. It was a beautiful scene really. The sun was low in the Upstate New York sky, casting a light shade of red on the horizon with the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains silhouetted in the distance. The temperature was a pleasant upper 70′s and for once, it was not raining (my Ark is nearly completed in my back yard). The thing that made this scene funny to me was that this gentleman, in one hand, had a leash that secured man’s best friend and in the other hand swayed a plastic bag full of man’s best friend’s poop. So this fella was not only taking the dog for a walk, but was also walking  a bag of crap.

I know I know, as my wife pointed out, it is the polite thing to do to clean up after Fido does number two. After all, if someone’s Great Dane did his business in my front yard, I’d probably appreciate a courtesy flush of sorts from the owner. By now you may be asking what any of this has to do with food packaging.  Well it struck me that this tightly sealed bag of doodoo was headed for the owners trash can where, hopefully very soon for the owners sake, it would be picked up by their waste hauler (no pun intended) and sent to a landfill where it will set for years and years to come.

As many of you may know, the single use foodservice packaging industry has come under fire as of late and is being blamed for all sorts of issues from excessive litter to filling up our landfills. Politicians looking to score easy points are quick to target food packaging and in specific, foamed polystyrene which is often incorrectly referred to as “styrofoam.” That is actually a trade name for a DuPont product. Even here in our home state of New York, bills have been introduced with the short sighted and mis-informed aim of reducing litter or lightening the burden on landfills. But I submit for your consideration that should these and other like bills be passed, what will really happen is instead of one type of item being littered by unscrupulous people, it will be replaced by another type of item. Instead of one type of material going to a landfill, a different and most likely heavier type will be going where it will last a lifetime. Instead of a burger and fries costing twelve bucks, it will now cost fourteen bucks to cover the higher cost of alternative packaging. Or perhaps the foodservice operator will just make less profit and be forced to cut back elsewhere. Maybe he’ll need to reduce staffing? Also, instead of your meal arriving at your house still hot and ready to safely consume, it may arrive lukewarm or even cold resulting in even more stuff being tossed into the garbage. Lastly, instead of foodservice operators being able to make their own decision on what type and style of foodservice packaging to use based on their and their customer’s needs, the government is dictating to them on what is best for them.

Listen, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not against alternative materials for foodservice packaging. Far from it.  Ask anybody around here and they’ll tell you I’m probably the biggest proponent for our own alternative materials initiatives. I mean who doesn’t want to work to produce products that use annually renewable resources or post consumer recycled content or products that fall into source reduction programs? (Sorry about that blatant pitch for our products, but I’m the one writing this not you). What really gets my goat is when our elected officials attempt to increase their popularity by picking on what they see as an easy target and forcing poorly researched legislation down people’s throats.

The fact is, all that banning foamed polystyrene items in favor of compostable items will do is create problems of a different kind. At the moment our country does not have sufficient numbers of industrial or municipal composting facilities to handle a conversion of this magnitude. Why not find funding to increase the number of these facilities to handle a surge of compostable items first? The alternative is simply compostable items being sent to landfills where they will set for years. Or maybe politicians should stiffen fines against litter bugs and beef up municipal trash collection? It sure seems to me that these types of efforts would greatly reduce litter. And once the proper infrastructure is in place for compostable materials diversion it might make much more sense for foodservice and restaurant industry operators to explore those types of packaging options like our Harvest Collection items. I don’t know?  I’ve rambled on now for some time and it occurs to me the only winner in this whole commentary is that dog. After all, who is carrying whose dooty?

According to Kermit, it’s not easy being green.  This may have been true for that web toed amphibian, but for us at Genpak, it is a can of corn (pardon the pun).  Our Harvest Collection products are the industry benchmark for top quality, alternative material food service packaging.  Whether they are referred to as green packaging, eco-friendly packaging or one of the many other earthy monikers out there, one thing is certain: You will get the best quality product available on the market today.

All Harvest Collection products are made right here in the USA.  This fact must be made very clear.  We were recently challenged at a restaurant industry trade show by a skeptical customer.  They had done research and came to the conclusion that all “eco-friendly” food service packaging was imported from the far east.  It certainly is true that many products other “manufacturing” companies offer are imports that need to take that long, expensive, gas guzzling boat ride across the Pacific Ocean.  But rest assured, our Harvest Collection products are made at our Middletown, NY facility.  Our Carthage, TX facility makes our Harvest cups.  The raw material resin is also a domestic product.

Now that you know where these products are made, we can talk about what they are made of.  Basically, it is corn (now you get the can of corn pun earlier).  Specifically a polylactic acid (PLA) blend.  I won’t bore you with the details of PLA composition.  You can do an internet search which will provide a plethora of sites describing everything you ever wanted to know about it.  Sometimes however, we are asked if it is GMO free.  The answer is, there is no trace of GMO in our finished product.  Now that is not to say the corn was not a GMO product.  I think it’s safe to say that it was.  However, to put this whole GMO thing into perspective, the cotton shirt and skivvies you are wearing, the corn flakes you had for breakfast and the seedless watermelon and grapes you enjoyed for lunch are all GMO products.  Also, the corn used to produce PLA resins is not the kind of corn used to feed humans.  

Harvest Collection products look and feel like top-of-the-line traditional plastic products.  They are cut resistant, won’t absorb liquids or transfer any sort of weird sugary flavor into your food.  When the products are removed from their bags, they won’t splinter and fall apart or become brittle and chalky like other alternative material products. 

 

Harvest Hinged

Harvest Collection food service packaging may be used for a variety of applications ranging from cold to warm foods up to 140° F.  Wet and dry salads, sandwich & wraps, desserts, anything on a bun, well you get the idea.  The list is as endless as your culinary imagination.

Now, what do you do with these products once you or your customer has used them.  Well you have choices.  The ultimate choice would be to find a professionally managed composter (not your backyard compost heap) that accepts food grade materials.  If this is the case, the composter will turn our products into compost within 90 days.  Pretty cool when you think about it.  The raw materials came from the ground in the form of corn, and will be returned to the ground in the form of useful compost.

If you don’t have a composter nearby or your municipality has no organics diversion program in place, your only other choice is to properly dispose of the products into your normal trash.

So let’s recap then. 

• Made in the USA (NY & TX)
• Made from an annually renewable resource (corn)
• 100% compostable (BPI certified)
• Wide range of applications

What are you waiting for?  If you have or are considering alternative materials for your food packaging, give us a call.  We’d be glad to send you written information or free samples to test.