Starbucks Coffee Co.’s recycling measures for their single-serve, coated hot cups got them top honors at the 2011 Greener Package Awards.
The award was sponsored by the Summit Media Group, a Chicago-based publication in the packaging industry, for outstanding industry efforts in packaging sustainability.
With judges coming from Colgate-Palmolive Company, Microsoft and Wal-Mart, Summit Media chose to recognize 13 companies for their environmental advances in packaging innovation.
Starbucks’ partnership with International Paper, Georgia-Pacific and Mississippi River Pulp was awarded a “Beyond the Package Award” for piloting a cup-to-cup and cup-to-napkin recycling system for single-serve, coated hot cups. Beyond the Package citations were given to company collaborations in sustainable packaging.
In its tenth sustainability report, the coffee company stated that it served 6.4 million more beverages in reusable cups in 2010 than it did in 2009. The company has set a target of serving 25 percent of beverages in reusable cups by 2015.
Another Beyond the Package award went to Artenius PET Packaging Europe for its expansion of its polyethylene terephthalate or PET recycling facility.
APPE invested almost $14 million to its Beaune, France recycling plant to increase its capacity by 40 percent and 35,000 metric tons. The expansion makes APPE the largest food-grade recycled PET producer in Europe.
Summit Media also gave four companies the Environmental Impact recognition for their efforts in reducing carbon impact by switching to more sustainable packaging. These were Organic yogurt producer Stonyfield Farm, Ecologic Brands, Cleaning Systems, Inc. and Stretch-wrap technology developer ITW Muller.
The Innovator of the Year award in the non F.D.A.-regulated products category went to packaging supplier Ecovative for developing a mushroom root-based protective packaging designed for Steelcase Inc., an office furniture company that produces a line of ready-to-assemble furniture.
This year’s entries were required to submit verifiable data for at least one aspect of environmental impact. Environmental impact categories include: greenhouse gas reduction, sourcing metrics/impacts, end-of-life recovery metrics/impacts, life-cycle metrics/impacts, and/or social impacts. (Jen Balboa)
This post republished with permission from ecoseed.org.
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I always love to see when bigger companies make more of a turn to going green. This makes me happy! Yay Starbucks! Now I won't feel so bad when I stop to drink up a latte.