New Orleans
seafood is going green. Global Green USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery
(CoRR) joined forces this past week with the New Orleans Fish House to test
recyclable coated corrugated boxes as methods of transporting locally caught
seafood. These innovative boxes, made by CoRR members Cascades Industrial
Packaging and Interstate Container, are designed to be recyclable, unlike the
paraffin-coated packaging typically used, and also withstand the icy seafood
packing process.
“It may seem
unusual to get this excited about cardboard boxes, but we are thrilled to
highlight these recyclable products,” said Global Green USA’s Lily Kelly,
interim director of CoRR. “If we were to replace all the unrecyclable packaging
used across the country for seafood, produce, poultry and meats, it would be
the equivalent of shutting down an entire coal-fired power plant with no loss
of energy, and a tremendous gain in savings and revenue for grocers and
restaurants.”
“From a
business perspective, it makes perfect sense,” said Eddie Gonzales, Sales
Representative at the New Orleans Fish House. “Our customers don’t want to bear
the costs of landfilling boxes, so recyclable packaging is an added value that
we can offer. It’s the next step in our evolution.”
The pilot
began at the New Orleans Fish House, where seafood and ice were placed in the
recyclable boxes, palletized, and loaded onto their delivery truck.
Representatives from Global Green USA and the packaging companies followed the
truck as it made deliveries in the Baton Rouge area, observing the unloading of
the seafood at an event venue, a large hotel, and a restaurant. At each
location, the recipients of the boxes confirmed that the boxes were performing
well, and expressed excitement that they were recyclable. “It will save us time
and keep costs and waste down. I love them,” said one recipient.
This pilot
marks a step toward more sustainable food systems: greens, vegetables, seafood,
and meats are often transported in paraffin-coated cardboard, generating 1.45
million tons of solid waste that must be sent to landfills or burned. If these
boxes are designed for recycling, and recovered, retailers and restaurants
could realize a net benefit of combined cost savings and revenue of $200
million nationwide.
The boxes,
which were donated for testing by Cascades and Interstate Container, are
recyclable in accordance with the Fibre Box Association’s recyclability and
repulpability protocol for wax-alternative coatings. “The Cascades Polar box,
which we tested for this pilot, stood up to the process quite well,” said Islem
Yezza, Technical and Business Development Director at Cascades. “We are proud
to be able to provide a variety of more sustainable alternatives to
unrecoverable polystyrene foam and wax-coated boxes.”
Jeff Cormier, National Sales and Marketing Manager at
Interstate Container, was likewise pleased with the results of the pilot. “We
make Greencoat recyclable boxes for a variety of uses, and have seen a lot of
success with poultry and produce,” he said. “We are very encouraged by the
outcome of this pilot, and look forward to bringing recyclable seafood boxes to
New Orleans and beyond.”
