Packaging Digest

Acme Bread leads with post-consumer recycled content bags

Acme Bread of Berkeley, CA, has switched to 40 percent post-consumer waste paper bread bags for all in-store retail packaging of its artisan breads. Acme Bread is the first major wholesale bakery to use recycled paper in this way, but the decision was an easy one since it will have a major environmental impact through reducing the energy, water and feedstock needed to make paper. 

The Department of Energy states that a ton of paper made from recycled fibers conserves 7,000 gallons of water, up to 31 trees, 4,000 KWh of electricity and up to 60 pounds of air pollutants (not including carbon dioxide). Since Acme uses hundreds of thousands of paper bags every year, the annual savings resulting from switching to recycled paper are impressive: 70,000 gallons of water, 310 trees, 40,000 KWh of electricity, and 600 pounds of air pollutants.

The new post-consumer waste paper bread bags from Excellent Packaging & Supply are FDA-compliant and perform as well as the bags they are replacing. The supplier offers an extensive choice of FDA-compliant, post-consumer waste paper bags suitable for direct food contact in foodservice applications.

"We are committed to reducing air pollution so we were really impressed by the significant savings of water, trees and electricity gained by moving to this new paper," says Doug Volkmer partner at Acme Bread. "The new recycled paper works just like the old virgin paper bags we used to use—there is no downside to using this product."

Steven Levine, founder of Excellent Packaging & Supply, believes Acme's move will set an example that other bakeries will want to follow: "When I discovered paper with such a high post-consumer waste paper content—that was for the first time FDA-approved for food contact—I knew that Acme Bread would want to evaluate it. They have a reputation for respecting the environment, and had been asking for this solution for years. Any food business that uses large quantities of paper packaging should consider this approach."

Source: Excellent Packaging & Supply