Pavel's Yogurt And The Recycling Issue

Over the years we have given much attention to the complex issue of recycling. We have used many different types of containers in the past thirty years, beginning in the mid-seventies with wax-coated paper cups. These were great cups, but there were problems with the lids staying in place, a problem that would not occur now with tamper evident seals. But those cups are not available any more in the configuration we would need. Next, we changed to very thin-walled polystyrene containers, a very light-weight cup that is easily recyclable, but since many people feel polystyrene and its relative, styrofoam, are .bad. plastics, no communities want to recycle them. Our supplier for polystyrene containers ceased production, indirectly because of a never implemented California Solid Waste Reduction bill.

Then, when the Recycling Symbols with the numbers inside the triangle became universal, we at Pavel's decided to change to HDPE containers, to participate fully with the recycling efforts. We spent thousands of dollars on the conversion. The same month that we began using HDPE containers, most of the cities in the Bay Area announced there were certain HDPE containers they would not accept for recycling, i.e., those containers whose lid diameter was larger than the diameter of the base. In other words, all HDPE Yogurt, Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, Whipped Butter, etc. They wanted to recycle only blow-molded HDPE milk containers. Apparently it was inconvenient to separate the two types of HDPE. Recycling itself is inconvenient; but that doesn.t mean it shouldn't be done.

Our experience suggests that there is a problem when individual communities each determine basic recycling regulations: If each community has a different attitude about what types of waste products it will comfortably recycle, how are product manufacturers to decide which container type to use?

Inevitably it comes down to a compromise: we decided that since the HDPE we used was not accepted in most communities, we'd change to a lighter container with less mass, and chose Polypropylene (PP) whose symbol is #5. It is at least 30% lighter than HDPE. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) by the Tellus Institute suggests that ..the lightest-weight package, per unit of delivered end-product, is generally the lowest-impact product.. Since many municipalities do not recycle wide mouth containers even if they are made of HDPE #2 plastic (e.g. yogurt tubs), recyclability of the package material is a moot point in this particular case. Furthermore, recycling rates in America hover around a meager 30% and that's being optimistic!

It should be emphasized that this is a temporary condition. Pavel's would love to return to the old paper containers we used thirty years ago, if a suitably biodegradable product with a moisture barrier can be developed. We've been told that many container manufacturers are working to achieve this, but the supply of biodegradable resins, when they are developed, will probably be insufficient to meet the demand for a few years.

We will update this information periodically.

*Quotation published on GREENER PACKAGE (http://www.greenerpackage.com/)