Environmental Leader

ConAgra Foods announced this week that it is incorporating between 30 to 40 percent post-consumer recycled plastic in its frozen meal trays. This move is estimated to divert approximately 8 million pounds of plastic from landfills annually.

Partnering with Associated Packaging Technologies, the company will use new technology to clean recycled plastic for use as a component in frozen meal trays. These trays have been approved by the F.D.A as direct food contact materials.

The company says that the move will ensure that the equivalent of 128 million 20-ounce plastic bottles won’t go to landfills each year. It will also save 236 million BTUs of energy, enough energy to run about 2,600 average American homes for a year; and reduce GHG emissions by 15,200 tons per year.