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Kellogg, Bear Naked’s Stand-Up Pouch Takes Circular Route to Recyclability

Confronted with questions around sustainability, the flexible packaging industry is working to make recyclable pouches a reality in support of a more circular economy, using the How2Recycle label.

Bear Naked®
Bear Naked®

According to the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA), flexible packaging already comes with some endemic sustainability benefits that relate to source reduction: less material going into landfills, extended shelf life/reduced food waste with reclosability, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to rigid packaging.

But creating a consumer-friendly circular path with recyclability has been an obstacle to flexible packaging. Consumers pay less attention to how a package is made and transported than they do to how they dispose of that package. And until recently, most people threw stand-up pouches in the trash, since the multilayer material is verboten in curbside recycling. Now that’s starting to change thanks to increasing adoption—slow, but certain—of an augmentation to traditional curbside recycling.

Dow’s RecycleReady Technology and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) promoted this new option for packaging manufacturers and brands in the form of in-store drop-off centers for multilayer polyethylene.

By using a certain portfolio of resins, adhesives, and compatibilizers, packaging manufacturers can produce recyclable multilayer flexible packaging. Flexible packaging using these materials can be easily recycled through existing PE film recycle streams, such as grocery store drop-off programs, in the U.S. and Canada.

Also in North America, when brand owners and retailers request RecycleReady Technology from their converters, their final package structure can be submitted to the SPC to qualify for the How2Recycle label. The label instructs consumers to visit how2recycle.info to learn how to use alternative recycling streams to curbside for previously unrecyclable stand-up pouches.

"At least now there is an emerging infrastructure and an emerging stream where consumers, once they're educated, can figure out that they can have the best of both worlds," says Chuck Ditter, Sales Manager, North America, Fresh-Lock , the zipper closure manufacturer on the Kellogg/Bear Naked project. "They'll realize that they can get that wonderful stand-up pouch that we liked so much, and the brand can still get the properties they need out of the film in the package. Ultimately, the consumer now can feel good about being able to bring this back to their store drop-off."

Commercialized pouch from Kellogg Company

The Bear Naked brand of granola, a Kellogg Company product, launched a new, fully recyclable stand-up pouch that now "bears" that How2Recycle logo. It was an 18-month journey involving multiple packaging suppliers. There were many materials and components used to manufacture the flexible pouch, and each element needed to meet certain requirements for the entire package to be easily recycled by consumers using in the in-store alternative to curbside.

Kellogg wanted a way to make it easier for its loyal customers to recycle their packaging. The target market for granola-eaters likely includes many people who care deeply about the environment and want to recycle their waste whenever possible.

Kellogg had been using a service for its Bear Naked granola packaging that required consumers to sign up for a special program and ship flexible pouches to a location for recycling. That’s a lot of work. Instead, the company wanted to allow consumers to bring used pouches to retail stores, using the How2Recycle program’s store drop-off, which is much more convenient.

However, before that could happen, Kellogg needed a recyclable film structure for its Bear Naked packaging that would be acceptable at these drop-off locations.

Film selection

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