Kraft Canada now has a solution for all those Kool-Aid Jammers pouches and Mr. Christie’s Snak Pak containers. The food giant has teamed up with Toronto- and New Jersey-based TerraCycle, a company that “upcycles” hard-to-recycle packages and materials into products like tote bags and pencil cases.
“They found an innovative way to prevent packaging from ending up in landfills,” says Jonathan Ingram, director of procurement and sustainability at Kraft Canada. “There aren’t that many workable solutions out there at the moment, so this is one that we feel is a good fit.”
School or community groups can join the Drink Pouch Brigade, the Cookie and Cracker Wrapper Brigade and the Back to Nature Brigade at Terracycle.ca. Once they’ve filled a box with packaging, they send it to TerraCycle, and two cents per package are donated to any non-profit organization.
In 2010, Kraft will start putting the TerraCycle logo on selected products. TerraCycle products are currently sold in the U.S. at retailers like Walmart and Target, and the company hopes to start selling in Canada by Earth Day next year.