While setting up the first September flyer for Capella, I noticed a little something on the packaging for Off The Eaten Path Veggie Crisps. In a banner at the top of the bag is the word “Compostable” in big bold letters. Now I’ve see this kind of claim before on food packaging so I was a little skeptical, but sure I’ll bite and take a look, so I headed off to their website.
Turns out, not all of their packaging is compostable but they appear to be moving in that direction. They say it isn’t suitable for home composting, only works at commercial or industrial scale composting facilities, and I knew those are pretty far and few between when we think about composting in most cities.
With a little further reading, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the folks at Off The Eaten Path make this process pretty easy and accessible for just about any of us, regardless of where we live. All you have to do is collect your used bags and place them in a mailer (add as many as you can to save those resources.) Next, fill out a brief form on their website to get a prepaid shipping label that you can print yourself. Tape that to your mailer and send them away, and they’ll do
the rest. This seems about as easy as it gets from a large corporation, as most of the other compostable packaging I’ve seen leaves it all up to us the consumers, to figure out where to compost these materials.
On the local side of the food industry, we have businesses like Nancy’s Yogurt made by our very own Springfield Creamery and Toby’s Tofu Family of Foods that are doing their part to reduce packaging waste. It started at Nancy’s and Toby’s joined forces to partner on the initiative not long after, changing the type of packaging they use to meet the same standards. Here in the Eugene-Springfield area you can find Recycling Round-Ups sponsored by Nancy’s, where they will collect your clean plastic containers that both businesses’ products come in. You can only recycle their containers because not all plastic is created equal and they’ve done the work to find a recycling facility that can consistently work with that type of plastic. In return at the Round-Up, they’ll also give you coupons for their products, recipes to expand your repertoire, a hearty thanks for doing the right thing with them, and if you’re lucky, they’ll still have some of those great canvas tote bags that you can pick up too. Nancy’s then sends all of these containers off to a plastic recycling facility by the truckload here in the Willamette Valley. There, the plastic is melted down and turned into park benches and more useable items.
We’ve got a long way to go to reduce our plastic and packaging waste in this country, that’s for sure. Yet here are several businesses that are making it easier for us all to think locally and act globally, by doing something to take responsibility for the packaging they create that surrounds the food we love. Let’s hope more businesses go this route or further. I don’t know about you but there are only so many plastic bags or containers I can reuse around home before it becomes unreasonable for even the most ardent recyclers and composters. Together we can create a better world for us, our neighbors and all that we share this big blue marble in space with.