"green packaging" 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.

A southern environmental organization is asking KFC to kick buckets made with trees from endangered forests out of its packaging repertoire.

"We've linked KFC's packaging to the destruction of wetlands forest in the mid-Atlantic," says Dogwood Alliance's executive director Danna Smith. "We're calling on KFC to increase its use of post-consumer recycled paper, reduce its use of paper and put recycling bins in its restaurants."

A spokesman for KFC did not return a call seeking comment, but directed Slashfood to a web page the company has created in response to Dogwood Alliance's allegations. According to the web site, all of KFC's paper bags are made from 100-percent post-industrial and post-consumer recycled content, while 30 percent of its bucket lids meet the same standard.