Improved Packaging
In addition to field measures and pack house technology to reduce waste, grower-shippers are also introducing new packaging. Ready Pac Produce, Inc. introduced a new clamshell designed to reduce landfill volume by 130,000 pounds last year. Up to 95 percent of the vegetable and plant waste of the Irwindale, CA fresh-cut processor is composted or used for animal feed. The company also cut its landfill waste in half by recycling plastic liners and wax boxes, eliminating eight landfill loads per week at its Florence, NJ plant.
Alan Hilowitz, Ready Pac’s director of corporate communications, says the company continues to examine its processing, packaging, and shipping practices to reduce spoilage and waste in retail and consumer use, and has been looking to its suppliers for new ideas. The reasoning is pretty simple: “We rely on the Earth for what we do; it would be counterintuitive and counterproductive for any company that focuses on plant- or animal-based products to not be sustainable in some shape or form.”
Organically Grown helps growers introduce new packaging to the marketplace and seeks feedback from vendors, distributors, and retailers. “We have many accounts that come to us and tell us their customers want less packaging,” comments Chambers. “People are much more aware that every piece of product they bring home from the store has to go somewhere. We can’t just wait to see where the push is coming from; we’re always actively looking to try new things.”
Improved Shipping & Distribution Channels
How pallets are configured and fit in a trailer can also reduce shipping costs and ultimately waste. Viva Tierra Organic, Inc. was ahead of the curve: it redesigned and reshaped cartons and reinforcements back in 2011, increasing its pallet stack from 56 boxes per pallet to 64.
Over time, the 14 percent more fruit each pallet could hold helped increase warehouse productivity for the Mt. Vernon, WA grower-shipper of apples, pears, and stone fruit. “It’s a little change,” admits Addie Pobst, organic integrity coordinator, but it does make a difference. “It’s worth it,” she adds.
At loading and delivery points, there are changes as well. Last November, the USDA named the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market as the winning terminal market in its “Terminal Market U.S. Food Waste Challenge.” The National Assoc-iation of Produce Market Managers promoted the effort by encouraging distributors to divert fruit and vegetables from the waste stream through recycling, composting, as animal feed, or by donating to food rescue programs.
Dan Kane, the Philadelphia market’s general manager, says the terminal market continually evaluates ways its 22 wholesale members and their employees can lessen environmental impact and divert healthy produce to Philabundance, a regional food bank.
Even the market’s construction, completed in 2011, was designed to include waste management processes with its own recycling facility. “We’re learning how to buy smarter, and consequently, cut down on tonnage fees,” explains Kane. “Our customers are very savvy and care deeply about our commitment to waste reduction. Many companies we work with have policies in place that seek to reduce, recycle, and recover, and we share that goal.”
