It's that time of year when people in the US think of the grass and flowers. It means the return of lawn care.
The NOCO company Tend will have bags of Brian's Best STA approved compost that will contain 20% post-consumer resin for the next season.
Post-consumer sources include curbside recycling programs and commercial recycling programs in retail stores.
Tend is a brand geared for direct- to- consumer lawn and garden products. The company looked for sustainable packaging solutions, but couldn't find anything.
"Some places around the country are starting to require minimum recycled content standards for plastic packaging such as garbage bags, but due to features such as UV protection and anti-slip, we weren't able to immediately identify suppliers."
Standard LLDPE bags were used by the brand.
Tend had to track down a company that could make their bags more sustainable.
Tend contacted several vendors and learned that the PCR lawn and garden bags weren't currently available. To help customers in North America develop cost-effective solutions for products and packaging, EFS-plastics is a mechanical recycling facility.
The collaboration between Tend, Salerno Packaging, and ourselves is exactly the type of engagement this industry needs to advance PCR usage in packaging. We hope that more of these projects will come to fruition soon. We need to make plastic circularity a reality.
The new lawn and garden bag was manufactured by the affiliate of Inteplast Group, Salerno Packaging, in partnership with Tend.
Salerno is excited to be at the forefront of innovation and recognizes the importance of using PCR in packaging. There is a need for more recycled content in the packaging we produce. We are seeing an increase in customers like Tend requesting this type of product.
Composters understand the importance of using recycled products to support circular programs and projects like this show what can be done when companies come together to innovate. Composters want to improve the environment through waste diversion. The bags wouldn't have been possible without the enthusiasm from the entire supply chain. The packaging industry relies on packaging to bring products to market.
Recycling of the bags is a work in progress.
The bags are not accepted at store drop-off locations due to the fact that mulch and soil bags are not allowed.
According to the US VP of business development, EFS-plastics is working hard to make that happen. The bag and film recycling group is working with us to get it accepted in the Northeast. The best way to recycle these bags is through the store drop-off program.
Retail take-back programs are the best way to return bags.
Consumers will have to check with their local recycler.
Buffalo River Compost's bags of Brian's Best Compost will be sold at local garden centers.
