ConAgra Foods to Eliminate Eight Million Pounds of Plastic Waste with New Frozen Meal Tray Design
August 18 2008 - 5:07PM
Business Wire
ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) announced today that it is the first
company in North America to incorporate post-consumer recycled
plastic in its frozen meal trays, which will divert approximately 8
million pounds of plastic from landfills to the recycling stream
annually. ConAgra Foods has begun to use between 30 percent and 40
percent post-consumer recycled plastic in nearly all of its frozen
meal trays for Healthy Choice�, Banquet�, Kid Cuisine� and Marie
Callender�s� products. Most frozen meals trays used by other
companies are made of crystallized PET plastic, a material that
uses only newly produced plastics and that requires more energy and
resources to produce. ConAgra Foods is the only company in North
America using post-consumer recycled plastic in frozen meal trays.
Post-consumer recycled plastic is packaging that has been used by
consumers that primarily is sent to landfills, such as plastic
bottles. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
only about 30 percent of plastic soda bottles are recycled each
year. Through these new meal trays, ConAgra Foods will use at least
8 million pounds of post-consumer recycled plastic annually.
ConAgra Foods partnered with Associated Packaging Technologies to
utilize a new technology that cleans recycled plastic for use as a
component in frozen meal trays. Older plastics technologies limited
food companies to using only new plastic to comply with regulations
for direct food contact materials. The new ultra-clean processing
technology makes it safe for consumers to eat the prepared food
directly from the frozen meal trays. The new trays are approved by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as direct food contact
materials. �Our commitment to innovation means we are looking at
all aspects of our products as we consider new ways to improve
them, including finding ways to be more environmentally
responsible,� said Gail Tavill, ConAgra Foods vice president,
Sustainability. �As a leading packaged foods company, ConAgra Foods
can make a positive impact on the environment by finding new ways
to reduce waste, and our new frozen meal trays with post-consumer
recycled plastic will ensure that the equivalent of 128 million
20-ounce plastic bottles won�t go to landfills each year.� By
incorporating post-consumer recycled plastic in its frozen meal
trays, ConAgra Foods will: Eliminate about 8 million pounds of
plastic from going to landfills, which is the equivalent of
approximately 128 million 20-ounce plastic bottles, per year. Save
236 million BTUs of energy, which is enough energy to run 2,593
average American homes for one year. Reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 15,200 tons of CO2 per year, which is the same as
taking nearly 2,000 cars off the road each year. ConAgra Foods
began the transition to the new trays in June 2008. The company�s
frozen meal trays are now being produced using the more
environmentally friendly material and will appear on store shelves
this summer. ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North
America�s leading packaged food companies, serving grocery
retailers, as well as restaurants and other foodservice
establishments. Popular ConAgra Foods consumer brands include:
Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew
National, Hunt�s, Marie Callender�s, Orville Redenbacher�s, PAM,
and many others. For more information, please visit us at
www.conagrafoods.com.
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