Just over a year ago, small commercial cherry tomato grower Linda Fritz of Sun Sugar Farms set out to create an alternative to non-recyclable plastic clamshells and the clunky open corrugated ones. She and other farmers across the USA, Canada and even Barbados now package their berries and tomatoes in her Sustainable Produce Containers.
Made of Kraftpak paperboard or white SBS, her patent-pending design features vents that represent all the elements that went into creating the produce from the sun in the sky to the worms in the soil. Since it’s a paperboard product it can easily be recycled or can biodegrade in a backyard compost in about a week.
Because it ships flat to save warehouse space and can be fully printable to eliminate the need for a label, the Sustainable Produce Container is cost-competitive in high volumes with plastic.
Other features include
- Sturdier than plastic so they can be stacked higher – saving space at the grocery shelf
- Several ways to lock but are easy to open to view all the contents
- Hold up well during temperature transitions and produce in them seems to last longer
“How often do you get a call from a customer saying that they bought your product just because of the packaging it came in?” says Fritz. “Happens to me all the time. More and more people are fed up with plastic waste. If you’re growing organically it makes sense to use packaging that treats the earth with the same respect. Plus I don’t feel bad packaging in smaller quantities now, it’s actually increased my profitability.”
WEBSITE:
https://www.cresbicrate.com/special-pricing/sustainable-clamshell
