SC Johnson has launched Ziplock Brand Compostable Bags designed for use in commercial composting facilities that accept food scraps and compostable bags.
The compostable bags include sandwich bags, 15-quart sized food storage bags and 2.6-gallon food scrap bags.
In 2010, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and about 25 percent of it was food scraps and yard trimmings, according to the EPA. Composting recovered more than 20 million tons of waste, but that’s less than a third of the material that could have been composted.
The EPA says if participation in curbside commercial programs increased by 20 percent, an additional 4 millions tons of compostable waste could be prevented from going to landfills.
All three bag types are certified compostable under ASTM D6400 by the Biodegradable Products Institute.
In addition to making sustainable packaging that helps divert waste from landfills, SC Johnson has made progress internally in cutting its own waste, according to its latest sustainability report. From 2010 to 2011, the company reduced its waste output by 2 percentage points; SC Johnson has set a goal to reduce its solid waste by 70 percent of 2000 levels by 2016. Since the baseline year, the maker of Glade, Pledge, Windex and Off! products has decreased its global manufacturing waste by 57 percent, the sustainability report says.
Among SC Johnson’s other 2016 environmental objectives are goals for decreasing packaging overall, increasing the use of post-consumer-recycled materials, and offsetting virgin material use. Its partnership with Recyclebank, which put recycling bins in 50 US communities and tries to increase recycling through consumer messaging, helped the company surpass its year-one target for offsetting virgin material use. In the US, 6.8 percent of virgin material use was offset in the 2011/12 fiscal year.