PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2013

PET - THE NEXT GENERATION 28 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 07+08/13 www.petpla.net California-based Ready Pac is a producer of convenience fresh foods including fresh- cut produce. With its rPET salad bowl, the company is celebrating yet another achievement on its bowl salad line. In 2012 the company launched Ready Pac Bistro Organic bowl salads, new items for the conven- tional line, and new private label bowl salads. Now the company has tallied up the effects of on-going efforts to improve the sustainability of the prod- uct packaging and determined that the Ready Pac Bistro Bowl Salads line is on track to use more than 56,000,000 recycled plastic beverage bottles this year. “When Ready Pac created the bowl salad line our first requirement was that the packaging used would deliver the necessary shelf life to meet or exceed our customers’ require- ments, and the second was to make it easy for a consumer to see how fresh the product is,” says Tristan Simpson, Director of Marketing and Communi- cations, Ready Pac Foods. “Since then, we have made continuous improvements over time to create a more sustainable bowl salad package, and the net effect is we’re making a significant contribution to helping the environment.” Each Ready Pac bowl salad pack- age, including the insert that sepa- rates protein ingredients and condi- ments from the salad greens, contains 60% post-consumer recycled content. That works out to slightly more than one recycled 500ml beverage bottle per package. The salad bowls and inserts are produced in plants powered by 50% solar energy. Combining the energy savings of using recycled PET bottles and the solar energy savings versus conventional power, each Ready Pac bowl salad package saves about 1,000BTUs or 0.30khh of electric power. Theses energy savings are enough to run a traditional 100W light bulb for about 3h, or an energy-saving 26W/ 1300 lumen bulb for 26h. www.readypac.com Salad Packaging Production to use more than 56,000,000 recycled PET bottles Ready, steady, bowl!