"Grocery Manufacturers Association" news and stories

From thinning plastic bottles to decomposable potato chip bags, sustainable packaging has hit the marketplace in full force. In fact, from 2005 to 2010 more than 1.5 billion pounds of packaging was diverted from landfills, says a new survey from the Grocery Manufacturers Association. And for the next decade, the goal is to cut another 2.5 billion pounds off that "waste line."

The survey, titled Reducing Our Footprint, was done by McKinsely and Georgetown Economic Services, and details the poll of 14 top companies in the food, beverage and consumer products industries. They don't reveal specific company names, but their findings show that the industry at large is on track to reduce packaging weight by 19 percent, or 2.5 billion pounds, by 2020. That's the energy-saving equivalent of removing 363,000 homes or 815,000 gas-guzzlers.