Seventh Generation - Plastic-fantastic recycling breakthrough sets new industry standard
Last updated 11/22/2010 2:20:26 PM
Seventh Generation - recycling breakthrough
The after-life of millions of plastic milk jugs have been given new domestic purpose by Seventh Generation, a producer non-toxic household and personal care products in the US. The company has introduced new packaging of its products that are made from 96% post-consumer recycled content (PCR).
Collaborating with the Consolidated Container Company, a developer and manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging, Seventh Generation has set new industry standards over the 25% recycled content founding in plastic packaging.
The company's director of global strategic sourcing, Peter Swaine, said: "For many years we've bemoaned the fact our products were great for the Earth, but our packaging really wasn't".
According to him, engineering the new packaging took while, but making a bottle that meets both high-performance and top environmental standards has become possible.
The new packaging, featured in the brand's Dish Liquid and Fabric Softener, joins other high-PCR content bottles, including Seventh Generation's 80% PCR Concentrated Laundry Liquid container.
These bottles are made from HDPE (#2) plastic instead of PETE (#1) because manufacturing HPDE resin produces 42% less greenhouse gas emissions than PETE.
According to Seventh Generation, the benefits of this switch are enormous: If every household replaced just one virgin plastic 25 oz. bottle of dish liquid its 96% PCR bottle, America would save over 8,600,000 lbs of plastic and prevent the release of more than 23,500,000 lbs of greenhouse gases.