Direct Pack, Inc. proudly announce that Driscoll’s, our long-term customer-partner, has received the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s 2021 Innovator Awards for using clamshells that blend recycled PET bottles and thermoforms.
Direct Pack, Inc. and Driscoll’s together have pioneered the full circular raw material by including not only post-consumer recycled PET bottles, but also post-consumer PET thermoformed packaging in Driscoll’s berry clamshells. A brand new Driscoll’s berry clamshell contains material from previously used clamshells, keeping them from landfills, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the need for new material. Driscoll’s transition to utilizing post-consumer PET thermoforms is the first in the berry industry with respect to promoting full circularity in packaging.
Camille Herrera, the Packaging Development and Sustainability Manager at Driscoll’s, says: “A huge thanks to our packaging supplier Direct Pack for their efforts in solving both technical and supply chain challenges in the emerging PET clamshell-to-clamshell recycling space. We are deeply appreciative of their partnership in this endeavor, and look forward to even more success in the future as the reverse supply chain becomes more robust.”
Craig Snedden, the President of Direct Pack, shared: “Direct Pack, its customer-partners and MRF partners, have all played critical roles in developing and promoting full circularity with post-consumer PET thermoform packaging that when introduced into our wash line and solid-state polymerization process, will become a new food-grade PET package once again. We are seeing interest from supermarkets, food service operators, and berry growers all looking to incorporate food-grade post-consumer PET as a percentage of their new packages that will be sold at retail level. Partners like Driscoll’s are way in front of the curve with their mandate on including post-consumer PET thermoform in each of their containers. Direct Pack is pleased to be able to accommodate and perform on the supply of this food-grade feedstock. We are here to support Driscoll’s and other customer-partners in being able to elevate the overall percentages of post-consumer PET thermoforms in the very near future.”
Direct Pack, Inc. has partnered with a number of North American Material Recover Facilities (MRFs), working together to source and consolidate both post-consumer PET bottles and thermoform in large consolidated bales. Those bales are transported to Direct Pack Recycling (DPR), where the post-consumer packaging is reclaimed and reprocessed into “new” food-grade certified raw material. Currently, Driscoll’s berry clamshells contain 10% post-consumer recycled PET thermoform content. Learn more about Direct Pack Full Circle Recycling.