Packaging companies continue to lead the charge to reduce carbon footprints through use of more earth-friendly materials.
The latest news comes from Danone Canada, which this week announced plans to reduce use of plastic with a foaming agent and to use a type of plastic made with sugar cane instead of oil. These innovations are in direct response to Danone’s corporate objective of reducing the company’s carbon footprint 30 percent by 2012. The brands involved are Activia, Stonyfield, Silhouette and Creamy.
“These bold environmental initiatives, which are in line with our mission and our objectives for reducing our carbon footprint, have made us completely rethink our product packaging in the interest of the environment and well-being of our consumers,” says Anne-Julie Maltais, manager of external communications for Danone, Canada.
The foaming agent reduces weight of polystyrene packages by 18. “To date, we’ve applied this packaging process to 40 percent of our individual serving yogurts, and we are targeting complete integration by June 2011,” says Maltais.
Other types of yogurt packages are made from high-density polyethylene. These containers will now be made of bioplastic, reducing the carbon dioxide footprint of drinkable yogurt containers by 55 percent. Products affected are DanActive, Danacol, Danino Go and Drinkable Activia. Danone will adopt it gradually to achieve complete integration by the end of 2011.
The actions taken by Danone Canada are part of a global initiative. By next year, 110 of the companies’ packaging lines will be converted to the foaming agent. The company’s bottled water brands are now using recycled polyester in packaging. Another type of bioplastic is being used by Danone in Europe for yogurt cups.
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