Supermarket Perimeter - May 2023 - 15

Packaging industry sets the bar
higher on eco-friendly products
By Andy Nelson
C
onsumers love the convenience and safety of
packaged food products. At the same time,
they're concerned about the environment and
want to reduce waste wherever possible.
It's one of the central paradoxes in the food world
today. But while many throw their hands up and
consider it to be an unsolvable problem, packaging
manufacturers see it as a challenge that can be tackled
and overcome, as their continually evolving product
lines make clear.
In January, Madison, Wis.-based Placon, which makes
containers for food and other industries, released its
first-ever sustainability report.
It's the first thing you see when you go to Placon's
website, a symbol of the company's commitment to
recycling as much plastic, conserving as much energy
and achieving other Earth-friendly goals as it can.
The report is both a look back and a look forward - a
review of the company's achievements and a road map
for the future.
The recent past is full of sustainability achievements
for Placon, said Kali Kinziger, a product manager for the
company.
In December, Placon launched its new line of crystal
clear tamper-evident round deli containers, which come
in five different sizes, ranging from 8 to 32 ounces. That
follows on the heels of the company's introduction
of new tamper-evident salad bowls that can do
double duty for bakery, prepackaged foods and other
applications. All are 100% recyclable.
On tap for this year: at its main manufacturing facility
in Madison, Placon is aiming for zero net waste by the
end of 2023, and its other facilities will follow in the
coming years, with all plants expected to reach the goal
by the end of 2025, Kinziger said. To help achieve that
goal, Placon is extensively remodeling its standalone
recycling center, which takes plastic from a variety of
sources, recycles it and turns into Placon packaging for
instore delis and bakeries and other food and non-food
destinations.
" We truly have post-consumer recycled content, and
we can prove it, " she said. " Our customers who have
sustainability goals, we're telling them: we can help you
achieve them. "
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Placon's recycling center covers about 70,000
square feet and is located on the same campus as the
company's thermoforming headquarters. Placon uses all
recycled content and extruded RPET material made at
the facility internally across food, retail, and non-sterile
medical PET packaging product lines, Kinziger said.
The facility, 12 years old, is in the midst of a threephase
expansion with the ability to accept 100% locallysourced
bales. Currently, Placon works with multiple
sources of PET bale suppliers, including certified oceanbound
plastic, domestically and internationally to obtain
the highest flake yield.
In addition, in 2023 Placon will add a new bottle sorter
and flake sorter that will allow the company to capture
more PET bottles and thermoforms and increase its
throughput by 21%.
As its sustainability report makes clear, Placon is
aligning its goals with the Ellen McCarthur Foundation,
which prioritizes a circular economy, regenerative
nature, waste elimination and other goals.
And Placon's efforts extend beyond recycling plastic.
In 2021 the company invested in its own " solar farm, " a
piece of land up the road from its Madison plant that is
full of solar panels. 2022 was the first full year the system
was in use, and the results were phenomenal, Kinziger
said: from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., solar accounted for half of the
power used at the plant.
Novolex doubles down on consumer education
Nearly 50% of all raw materials used in packaging made
by Novolex are derived from either post-consumer
recycled (PCR), renewable, or bio-based sources.
That allows the company to innovate new products
designed for commercial composting, said Erik Gonring,
senior director of sustainability.
In October, Novolex received BPI certification for
the Dubl Life line of paper bags and sacks, extending
its product offering with the leading compostable
certification to include one of its highest volume product
categories.
" Dubl Life bags are also recyclable, so we had a great
opportunity to use the bags to support consumer
education by featuring both the How2Compost and
How2Recycle labels, which inform consumers of how to
MAY 2023 - 15
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