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Renewable Materials
The next phase in our evolving approach to sustainable packaging will be increasing the use of renewable materials in manufacturing our products without compromising performance. We know that some of the earth’s most basic and natural farm-grown materials, such as soybeans, sugar cane, and corn, have the potential to play an important role in packaging
In January of 2006, Sealed Air took a major step in this direction with the acquisition of Biosphere Industries, a California-based research company that develops primary packaging materials from renewable resources (primarily starches and a small amount of grass fibers). Our goal is to incorporate Biosphere’s propriety technology into our existing product development as well as advance Biosphere’s expanding line of renewable food packaging products.
Along with advancing our own renewable source technologies, we are actively pursuing sourcing renewable materials from outside the company. In the spring of 2007, we launched NatureTRAY™, our first food packaging tray made entirely from corn, a 100% annually renewable domestic resource.
We also are investing in expanding the use of renewable materials by improving both the barrier properties and heat range of existing technologies:
- Materials to provide broader range of physical properties such as heat sealability and impact
- Materials to provide gas barrier properties comparable to today’s barrier materials
- New packaging films, semi-rigids and rigids to have total renewable offerings
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