New "Sustainable Produce Container" - Compostable Alternative to Plastic Clamshells
Replace plastic clamshells with these sustainable, recyclable, and compostable Made-in-the-USA produce containers made from cardboard. Order the QUART , LOW PROFILE PINT or HALF-PINT in natural brown Kraftpak and delight your customers! For high volume growers we also have a reversible paperboard that can be machine formed at 120 cartons per minute. Call 859-630-2694 for more information!
WXIX FOX19: Local Entrepreneur's Sustainable Produce Container Makes it to the Super Bowl
WKRC TV12:Local Farmer Designs System to Replace Plastic Products
WVXU Public Radio:Local Farmer Creates Eco-Friendly Packaging Fruits & Vegetables
Organic Produce Network:Alternative to Plastic Produce Containers Emerges from Small Midwest Farm
Fresh Plaza: Landwirtin kreiert umweltfreundliche Verpackung (Farmer Creates Environmentally Friendly Packaging)
Kentucky Department of Agriculture newsletter article: A Better Box
Perishable News: Tomato Grower Introduces New Sustainable Produce Container
The Packer: Search for Sustainable Packaging Spurs New Product Line
WATCH THE VIDEO TO LEARN MORE!
CHANGE IS COMING
Want more business from the growing trend towards sustainability? Or more profit from your produce by introducing it in a better box? Package your produce professionally AND sustainably with this vented container from Sun Sugar Farms. Our Sustainable Produce Container is the perfect replacement for plastic clamshells and can carry all kinds of produce:
Cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, mushrooms, peppers, apricots, cherries, gauva, snap peas, green beans, dates, figs, dates, kiwi, Campari tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, taramind pods, brussel sprouts, etc, etc!
Made from easy to recycle paperboard, these containers are rigid enough to stack high and protect your produce yet they'll biodegrade in a backyard compost. The earth-themed cut-outs allow good visibility from all angles and encourage air in and around the produce. The vents also help to minimize condensation from temperature transitions and preserve the freshness of the product. Plus, in high volumes, our package can even compete on price with plastic!
FEATURES
- Professional-looking vented container
- Alternative to plastic clamshells that most recycling centers will not take
- Quart holds 1.5 pounds of cherry tomatoes, 1 quart of strawberries, guava, dates, kiwis, mushrooms
- Low Profile Pint holds cherry or campari tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries, angelcots, figs, cherry plums, handmade soaps
- Half Pint holds blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cucamelons
- Made from natural color Kraftpack or Coated Unbleached paperboard
- Rigid enough to stack multiple containers or other items on top of the containers, great for CSA deliveries
- Earth-themed cut out vents allow good visibility from all sides (sun, rain, plants/flowers, wind, moon, heavens, earthworms/dirt)
- Vents allow airflow, minimizes condensation
- Fits all master cartons
- Holds up well during temperature transitions from field to refrigerator
- Hinged lid has locking straight tab on front and moon-shaped locks on sides or slide-in tabs, 2 Quart version features tamper-proof anchor lock or tuck in lid
- Room on top side for a sticker up to 3”x4” or wrap a label over the lid edge
- Half-pint is single motion auto-bottom box, Pint and Quart are 4 step box assembly, 1 to 3 step locking process (our packers apply labels and fold the boxes at the same time and average 100 boxes/minute, they are paid $0.10/box vs per hour)
- Optional automated assembly options include a low cost jig for pint and quart, a fully automated folding machine for around $45k for auto-bottom half pint (45/min) and the 2 Quart can be machine assembled at the rate of approximately 100 containers/minute.
- All are easily recycled, the full Kraft containers are compostable and will easily biodegrade
- Competes on price with plastic clamshells for quantities of 2 million or more.
- Printing is available for quantities 10,000 and above to eliminate unrecyclable labels
- Ship flat
- Patent-pending US 62/710,915
- Click here for flier: FLIER
- Less waste
- Happier customers
- A better world
I developed these eco-friendly containers to hold my sun sugar cherry tomatoes because expensive pulp berry containers lacked lids and plastic clamshells could not be recycled. Although most plastic companies' containers say "100% recyclable", most consumers can’t recycle them since no recycling centers in the USA will take them!
It's easy for plastic companies to greenwash consumers because water bottles (which are also a #1 PETE) can be recycled. The difference is water bottles are formed by injection molding, they melt at a different temperature, and they do not have strong adhesive labels like produce clamshells do. This makes water bottles recyclable and produce clamshells, well, just trash headed for a landfill.
What's the big deal though? It's just a few pieces of plastic! Well, if you took the plastic containers that just strawberries come in, each year, and lined them up on Interstate 80, you'd have enough clamshells to cover that four lane higway from New York to LA. And back. Or enough clamshells to fill the 2020 Super Bowl stadium. 3 times.
And that's just for strawberries.
This doesn’t seem fair to repay the earth for its bounty with a chemical cocktail it can do nothing with. So I did something. My Sustainable Produce Containers are easy to recycle, can handle almost all produce, and in high volume can compete with plastic on price. Isn't it time for a change? Tell your grocer or grower you want them to change over, too!
Linda Fritz, Owner Sun Sugar Farms
Here's a video from KCET that explains really well the whole recycling problem:
