Our “Green Together” initiative reflects our efforts together with our partners and customers to work for a more sustainable environment. Our philosophy is built on several pillars: Material, Product Design, Manufacturing Processes and End-of-life Producer Responsibility.

• Use post-consumer recycled PET
• Reduce material use by outstanding product design and engineering
• Reduce our carbon footprint in every process
• Be product stewards within the plastics industry
• Extend our responsibility to the end of life of our PET products
• Promote and facilitate recycling to reduce landfills and marine debris
• Participate in local community eco efforts like the LA River Cleanup

Being first to the market, the BOTTLEBOX® is the original take-out container made of post-consumer recycled PET plastic. We have been using post-consumer recycled PET bottles since 2008. Each year we audit how much rPET we use in our manufacturing facilities. In 2018 DPI used 23% more recycled PET beverage bottles than in 2017. Since 2011 (when we started measuring), Direct Pack has used more than 5.1 billion recycled bottles! Check out our video that illustrates what that means. Thanks to all our loyal customers, we are saving a lot of bottles from landfill, and together we are making an important difference for the environment.

Also, did you know that PET is the most recycled plastic in the world, and that our containers can be recycled again? Please put them in the recycling bin after use.

When you buy BOTTLEBOX® products, we can provide a yearly calculation of how your business is contributing positively to a better environment by using our rPET containers. How many bottles do you save from landfill? How many cars are you taking off the road? Interesting information for you, your employees and your customers!

Wanting to contribute to a better environment and staying in the forefront of developing better processes and business practices within the plastics industry, we are actively running many sustainability projects in collaboration with our customers, suppliers and partners. Some of the many benefits include:

• Increased recycling and recovery of PET (No. 1) containers 
• Increased recycling of Polypropylene (No. 5) for use in our containers
• Increased diversion of LDPE (No. 4) in CA for manufacturing of reusable bags
• Increased diversion of food waste, fat, oils and grease from landfills
• Increased production of renewable fuel
• Decreased greenhouse gas production

For the second year in a row we gathered employees, partners and family members to participate in the LA River 2019 Cleanup in Sepulveda Basin. This great event was organized by Friends of the LA River, and again, Direct Pack contributed with 127 participants and was the single largest group of volunteers they have ever had. For 30 years, FoLAR have organized cleanups of the Los Angeles River and protected our waterways and oceans from trash and refuse. In 2019 they mobilized 6,000 volunteers and removed 100 tons of trash at 11 different locations. In September 2019 Direct Pack employees and families also participated in the International Coastal Cleanup. As a strong advocate of all kinds of recycling, we are committed to keeping the oceans free of plastic and trash, and contributing to a more sustainable environment in any way we can.

Being pro-active in the area of Extended Producer Responsibility, our BOTTLEBOX® containers, which contain up to 80% post-consumer recycled PET, go far beyond the California State AB837 requirements. With assistance from NAPCOR (the National Association of PET Container Resources), we are collaborating with local Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) to sort PET food containers from curbside recycling streams as well as to recover thermoformed containers sorted at stores and baled at distribution centers, and from product destruction streams from large grocery chains. The containers will be recovered and reclaimed, and the resulting flake is used to produce new thermoformed containers used extensively by grocery chains. Talk about effectively closing the loop!

The food waste that is recovered when stores separate the food from the containers either goes to make compost or to local digesters making renewable energy. As we and our partners roll this from pilot to full-scale project, some of the biogas produced from food waste digested will be used at Direct Pack’s plant in Sun Valley. Some of the food waste is used to make compost.

Degradable labels

A problem with labels on containers is that many are not degradable in the reclaimer wash lines, thus making the containers more difficult to recycle. We are connecting manufacturers of degradable labels with food processors to increase the level of recycling of all kinds of food containers.

Bioplastics

DPI is working with a California-based manufacturer of a new bioplastic called PHA. PHA is made from some of the digester liquid (starting out as food waste), making it a compostable bioplastic that is not from a human or animal food source like corn used for PLA. The plan is to produce sheet and make thermoformed bioplastic containers.