How to transition to wax-free produce boxes

Interstate Container, creator of Greencoat® coated wax-free fresh produce boxes, will meet with growers, packers and their customers at Booth #5252 during PMA Fresh Summit at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta from October 23-25.

Working Hand-in-Hand for Sustainable Packaging
Interstate Container works Hand-in-Hand with growers, packers, and their customers - national supermarket chains, foodservice distributors, and restaurant chains - to transition to wax-free coated corrugated boxes in their supply chains.

“Until now,” explains Jeff Cormier, Interstate Container Sales Manager, “fresh produce customers have had to pay to landfill wax boxes used to transport specific vegetables and fruit. Greencoat is ideally suited for growers and packers looking for a water-repellent box that holds up during shipment but is not as costly or non-recyclable as a wax-cascaded box.”

In May, Interstate Container teamed up with Global Green USA, national retailer Sav-A-Lot, and major cabbage supplier Northampton Growers. In this trial, Northampton Growers converted all of its 50 pound cabbage boxes to Interstate Container’s Greencoat recyclable boxes. More than 75,000 boxes of cabbage were shipped over 750 miles from Northampton Growers’ packing shed in Moultrie, GA to Sav-A-Lot’s distribution center and stores in St. Louis, MO [1].

Benefitting from Greencoat
Fresh produce customers have begun mandating the transition to wax-free packaging. The switch to no-wax boxes not only removes wax disposal fees of up to $70 per ton but also generates up to $80 per ton when recycled. With retailers leading the way, corrugated boxes in the U.S. are the most recyclable packaging material, currently at a rate of 90% [2].

A proven replacement for wax boxes, Interstate Container produces and ships over 5 million Greencoat boxes every month from plants in Columbia, SC and Cambridge, MD.

Helping the Environment / Reducing Carbon Footprint
Fresh produce growers and packers, along with meat and seafood processors, generate 1.45 million tons of solid waste from paraffin-coated cardboard, according to Global Green USA Coalition for Resource Recovery (CoRR) [3].

By transitioning to Greencoat, growers and packers get the strength and durability of wax boxes without the carbon footprint. Recycling 100 tons of Greencoat boxes saves 1,527 million BTUs and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 312 tons of MTCO2E and 85 tons of MTCE.

For more information:
Jeff Cormier
Interstate Container
Tel: +1 410-221-1508
Email: Jeff.Cormier@interstatecontainer.com
www.interstatecontainer.com
www.greencoat.net