Featured product: organicgirl good clean greens are delivered in 5 oz., 10 oz., and 16 oz. plastic #1 clamshell containers.
Recycling Steps
If your curbside program accepts #1 plastic clamshells:
- Wash the clamshell, removing any organic material.
- You can soak labels to remove the paper and leave the remaining adhesive on the package or cut the plastic with labels attached off the clamshell to minimize contamination.
- Dry the container.
- Place the clamshell packaging directly in the recycling bin. Do not bag your plastic recyclables, they will be pulled from the waste stream and sent directly to a landfill.
- You’re done, and you made a difference. The recycling center will separate your clamshells from other types of plastic, wash them (again), and shred them before melting them into a resin. The end product is plastic pellets that can be used to make new products.
If you drop #1 plastic clamshells at a transfer station:
- Find a recycling transfer station near you.
- Wash the clamshell, removing any organic material.
- You can soak labels to remove the paper and leave the remaining adhesive on the package or cut the plastic with labels attached off the clamshell to minimize contamination.
- Dry the container.
- When you arrive at the transfer station, place your clamshells into the appropriate bin. Do not use a plastic bag, place them in the bin separately.
- You are done! Your extra work makes a difference!
#1 Plastic Explained
#1 Plastic clamshell packaging is common across the United States and is accepted by many local recycling programs in and around major metropolitan areas. Although most recycling programs accept #1 Plastic bottles, some may not accept molded clamshell containers because they are currently incompatible with their recycling systems.
Sustainability Benefits of Recycling organicgirl Clamshell Packaging
Recycling a Plastic #1 clamshells reduces the amount of energy and carbon dioxide emitted during production by at least 30 percent. Organicgirl clamshell containers come with a built-in sustainability boost. Each package is made from recycled plastic bottles.
Recycling one pound of organicgirl 5 oz. containers, which is 8.60 clamshells of 1.86 ounces each, reduces the power required to produce another pound of plastic by approximately 3.35 kilowatt-hours, eliminates about one pound of CO2 emissions, and saves almost 2.5 gallons of water used in the manufacturing process.
At that rate, if you ate salad every day and recycled the containers, you would reduce the energy required to make the packaging by 174-kilowatt hours a year. Your carbon footprint would fall by about 52 pounds annually and the water used to make the containers would decline by 130 gallons a year.
Add that up across the country and we’re talking about a meaningful impact. These small steps add up.
Data source: Eco-profiles of the European plastics industry
organicgirl’s Ongoing Packaging Efforts
Organicgirl continues to explore better packaging options. It introduced its salad greens in a biodegradable Polyactic acid (PLA) bioplastic container. But the company found that there were not enough industrial composting facilities in the U.S. to reliably process a large share of the PLA. Customers asked for a change, as well, and organicgirl switched to its current recycled PET clamshell package.
organicgirl is working with its clamshell packaging provider and Earth911 to identify the gaps in the recyclability of their clamshells. This information will be helpful in directing industry and community programs working to close those gaps. Organicgirl is also investigating new labeling options that could remove the adhesive and paper contamination created by labels. We will update this guide when new labeling is available.
Products Covered
You can recycle the packaging of the following organicgirl products using the instructions on this page:
- 50/50 Spring Mix and Baby Spinach, 5 oz clamshell
- 50/50 Spring Mix and Baby Spinach, 10 oz clamshell
- 50/50 Spring Mix and Baby Spinach, 16 oz clamshell
- Baby Arugula, 5 oz clamshell
- Baby Arugula, 10 oz clamshell
- Baby Bok Choy, 5 oz clamshell
- Baby Spinach, 5 oz clamshell
- Baby Spinach, 10 oz clamshell
- Baby Spinach, 16 0z clamshell
- Supergreens!, 5 oz clamshell
- Supergreens!, 10 oz clamshell
- Supergreens!, 16 oz clamshell
- Baby Spinach and Baby Arugula, 5 oz clamshell
- Baby Spring Mix, 5 oz clamshell
- Baby Spring Mix, 10 oz clamshell
- Baby Spring Mix, 16 oz clamshell
- Butter Lettuce, 5 oz clamshell
- Butter Plus! PLUS Nutritious Baby Red Butter, 5 oz clamshell
- baby kale SPRING MIX, 5 oz clamshell
- 100% Baby Kale, 9 oz clamshell
- Little Gems, 5 oz clamshell
- Protein Greens, 4.2 oz clamshell
- Romaine, 7 oz clamshell
- Super Spinach!, 5 oz clamshell
This post was originally published on April 1, 2020.