Anderson Partners Advertising | Food Ingredients

TerraCycle was founded in 2001 with the goal of eliminating waste. The process starts by offering national collect programs (called brigades) to collect non-recyclable or hard to recycle waste and then convert the collected waste into a wide range of products and materials. There are currently about 33 brigades available that range from drink pouches to energy bars to tortilla bags. Most of the brigades are free to participate in because TerraCycle and partnering companies pay the shipping costs when you send your collection back. As an added incentive to collect, for every unit of waste you send to TerraCycle, you will receive at least $0.02 to a charity or school of your choice.

Manufacturers like Kraft Foods are continuing to expand their involvement in the TerraCycle program. Kraft Foods previously offered programs for its Capri Sun, Nabisco and Lunchables products, and has recently added cheese packaging. The cheese packaging the program accepts includes Kraft Naturals, Philadelphia, Philly, Athenos, Kraft Singles, macaroni and cheese, Easy Mac, Cracker Barrel, Polly-O, Breakstone, Velveeta and Knudsen.

This program seems to recognize that manufacturers will have restrictions when it comes to packaging due to food safety, cost, consumer and storage needs, and more. Thankfully, TerraCycle has developed a unique program that allows those manufacturers to reduce their negative environmental impact.

In a previous blog post, we wrote about the growing activity inside food ingredient companies to communicate their various efforts at establishing viable and credible sustainability programs. Industry marcom execs have been challenged to expand their communications to a wider variety of internal and external audiences. Several food ingredient companies have implemented comprehensive communications plans that integrate multiple tactics to promote their sustainability programs, including trade news coverage, advertising, social networks, e-mail marketing and more.

One tactic that appears to be having a lot of success is the idea of forming partnerships between food marketers, the cause-related non-profits and non-governmental organizations that are involved in relevant sustainability programs. One recent example that caught our attention was the partnership announced between Nestlé and The Forest Trust. The two are partnering to develop more responsible practices for palm oil sourcing and for procurement of the pulp and paper that Nestlé uses.

According to Food Business News, Nestlé and The Forest Trust have defined responsible sourcing guidelines—a set of requirements to guide the Nestlé procurement process and to ensure compliance with the Nestlé supplier code. Nestlé will seek to identify and exclude companies owning, or managing, high-risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation.

The partnership with The Forest Trust gives credibility to Nestlé’s sustainability program. The tactic also gains wider exposure through the joint promotion efforts of the two partners. Expect to see more food ingredient companies announcing eco-friendly partnerships in the months to come.