Associated Packaging Technologies (APT) is partnering with ConAgra Foods (Omaha, NB) to bring the first recycled PET (RPET) frozen food trays to market in North America. The trays developed by APT for ConAgra Foods will use between 30 percent and 40 percent post-consumer recycled plastic and will divert a minimum of 8 million pounds of plastic from landfills every year. The transition to the new trays began in June 2008 and will appear on store shelves as early as the end of summer, eventually providing nearly all the trays for ConAgra’s Healthy Choice®, Banquet®, Kid Cuisine®, and Marie Callender’s® products.
APT is employing a new plastics process that cleans recycled plastic for use as a component in frozen food trays. Older technologies limited food companies to using only new plastic in compliance with regulations for direct food contact materials. The new ultra-clean technology makes it safe for consumers to eat the prepared food directly from the frozen meal trays and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the new trays as direct food contact materials.
“Our company is looking at sustainability from many different directions,” notes Mark Staton, APT’s Chief Executive Officer, “The new RPET trays represent a giant step and we could not be more appreciative to ConAgra for their commitment to this initiative.”
According to Gail Tavill, Vice President, Sustainability, for ConAgra Foods, “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.”
“The beauty of the new RPET trays is that they meet the same performance specs as our popular CPET trays made from virgin crystallized PET plastic,” notes John L. Giordani, APT’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Technical Sales. “The environmental impact incentive comes without tradeoffs for our customers. We plan to eventually expand the availability of RPET trays to our other product lines of chilled and ready meal trays and to customers globally. All our plants have production capability for the new RPET trays.”
APT’s Beth Muscato has cited that “PET is now the second most recycled material in the world, and as the world's leading supplier of CPET trays, we feel it is important to provide the benefit of that leadership to our customers, in order to enable them to include post-consumer recycled material in their trays. We intend to expand further this use of RPET, and play our part in reducing the carbon footprint throughout the supply chain.”
In addition to the elimination of eight million pounds of plastic waste per year, the new RPET trays offer some additional environmental benefits. They require less energy and resources to produce than CPET trays. That translates into a savings of 236 million BTUs of energy, which is enough energy to run 2,593 average American homes for one year. The RPET trays will also help to 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 annually.
ConAgra Foods, Inc. is one of North America’s leading packaged foods 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.
APT is the world's largest vertically integrated manufacturer of CPET dual-ovenable containers for the food industry, the leading source for plastic food trays in the North American frozen food industry, and a major source for plastic food trays in other markets, including case ready meats, institutional, prepared foods, and bakery. The company has thermoforming plants in: Cambridge, Ontario; Waynesville, North Carolina; Chillicothe, Missouri; and Carrickmacross, Ireland. APT is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and the National Association of PET Container Resources.
For more information, contact: Associated Packaging Technologies, 1 Dickinson Drive, Suite 100, Chadds Ford, PA 19317, 484-785-1120, Fax: 484-785-1121, www.APTechnologies.com, www.CR-Freshlock.com, email: info@APTechnologies.com.
Contacts:
John L. Giordani
Vice
President Sales, Marketing & Technical Sales
484-785-1124
giordani@APTechnologies.com
or
Newton
Associates
Dan Ditzler, 610-964-9300
dand@newtonassociates.com
