PACKAGING FROM MAJOR SNACK BRANDS GETS A NEW PURPOSE
PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay and TerraCycle Partner to Start Chip Bag Brigades to Upcycle Used Packaging
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo, announced on April 29, 2009 a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upcycling company that will take used packaging from Frito-Lay snack products and turn them into affordable, quality goods. Through this joint program, consumers and local community groups can earn money by collecting the used packaging, and at the same time redirect packaging from landfills.
Over the past few years, the company’s packaging initiatives have made some significant strides. This includes reducing the amount of plastic in packaging by 10% and over the last five years eliminating 12 million pounds of materials used to make the snack bags. This month, the company announced that in 2010 its SunChips brand will be introducing a fully compostable bag made from plant-based renewable material. Marking the company’s latest effort, Frito-Lay will be the first snack food company to fund the collection and upcycling of its used packaging.
“Consumers interact everyday with our company and our brands through packaging,” said Gannon Jones, vice president, portfolio marketing, Frito-Lay North America. “The TerraCycle program builds on our existing efforts to minimize the impact of packaging, while also engaging and rewarding our consumers for being part of the solution.”
The company is asking consumers to form Chip Bag Brigades; for every bag a brigade collects and sends to TerraCycle, Frito-Lay will donate two cents to their charity of choice. Initially, there will be 1,000 collection sites and more are expected to be added during the year. The goal of the program is to engage at least 150,000 people and divert more than 5 million bags from landfills. Consumers can learn more about forming Chip Bag Brigades at www.fritolay.com/terracycle.
The packaging from all the company’s popular brands, such as Lay’s potato chips, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips and Cheetos cheese flavored snacks, will be used to make quality, affordable products such as purses, pencil cases and tote bags, which will be available at major retailers like Wal-Mart by late 2009.
This packaging innovation is in line with the commitment by PepsiCo, Frito-Lay’s parent, to reduce the company's impact on the environment through water, energy and packaging initiatives.
Frito-Lay North America is the $11 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, N.Y. In addition to Frito-Lay, PepsiCo business units include Pepsi-Cola, Quaker Foods, Gatorade and Tropicana. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate Web site, www.fritolay.com, and the Snack Chat blog, www.snacks.com.
Such partnerships between TerraCycle and large companies are already in existence and products such as the CapriSun pouches are being collected in the same manner by brigades sponsored by CapriSun's makers. We can but hope that other manufacturers of products the packaging of which is creating a problem as fas as “ordinary” recycling is concerned would team up with TerraCycle to have even more such upcycled goods on the market and thereby reducing the waste in our landfills.
When it comes to the CapriSun pouches, they are a bane in places where, for instance, there is no way of dealing with them, such as in Britain, where they fill up the litter bins of towns and cities, of city parks and country parks and litter the countryside, especially in the summer months.
TerraCycle was founded in 2001, by Tom Szaky, a Princeton University Freshman, in hopes of building an eco-capitalist company built on waste. After winning countless business plan contests, Tom dropped out of Princeton to pursue his dream of founding the world’s most environmentally friendly company. Seven years later, TerraCycle’s eco-friendly products have received a myriad of social and environmental accolades and are sold at major retailers like The Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods Markets. TerraCycle’s business plan and products made from waste received a Zerofootprint Seal of Approval, won The Home Depot’s Environmental Stewardship Award twice and recently won the 2007 Social Venture Network Innovation Award. Please visit www.terracycle.net to learn more.
TerraCycle is most probably one of the, if not indeed the, most innovative company globally as to reusing waste. In fact, if I am not mistaken, it may indeed be the only one that does this on a commercial scale bringing such products at a affordable price to the consumer, especially hear using the big box outlets in the United States such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and others.
For those that are not in the USA or near one of the outlets stocking TerraCycle products most of them are now available online via: www.shoponlygreen.com
Upcycling is indeed, in my opinion, as readers will know, the only way to go with many of the waste products that are about, as so much just cannot be recycled.
© 2009
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IT’S IN THE BAG
