Companies partner to make compost bag with recycled content

Tonawanda, New York-based NOCO’s Buffalo River Compost brand Tend says its 1-cubic-foot bags of Brian’s Best Seal of Testing Assurance-, or STA-, approved compost will be packaged using a lawn and garden bag containing 20 percent postconsumer resin (PCR) for the 2023 season.

Buffalo, New York-based Buffalo River Compost launched Tend, a brand geared for direct-to-consumer lawn and garden products, in 2022. When the company began to pursue packaging options, it says it found limited sustainable options.

“Some places around the country are starting to require minimum recycled content standards for plastic packaging, such as garbage bags, but due to features such as UV protection and anti-slip, we weren’t able to immediately identify suppliers that used PCR in lawn and garden bags,” says Bobbie Thoman, director of sustainability and innovation at Tend.

After contacting several vendors and learning that lawn and garden bags containing PCR were not in production, Tend reached out directly to EFS-plastics, a mechanical recycling company headquartered in Canada that creates customized plastic resin. 

Plattsburgh, New York-based Salerno Packaging Inc., an affiliate of Inteplast Group, of which EFS-plastics is a joint venture, worked in partnership with Tend over the past year to manufacture the lawn and garden bag, addressing areas such as the bag’s thickness and durability as well as graphic design.

“The collaboration between Tend, Salerno and ourselves is exactly the type of engagement this industry needs to advance PCR usage in packaging,” says Martin Vogt, CEO and president of EFS-plastics Inc.

He adds, “We have been pushing the envelope at our film recycling plants over the past months and can produce a range of high-quality LDPE [low-density polyethylene] and LLDPE [linear-low-density polyethylene] PCR that are tailored for many different consumer-facing applications. We are proud of this joint achievement and hope to see more of such projects coming to life soon. Only then we can make plastics circularity in flexible packaging a reality.”

“Salerno recognizes the importance of using PCR in packaging and is excited to be at the forefront of innovation,” says Roger Sullivan, vice president of sales and marketing at Salerno Packaging. “We see the need for an increase in recycled content in the packaging we produce. It’s an important environmental effort, and we are seeing an increase in customers, like Tend, requesting this type of product.”

“As composters we truly understand the importance of using recycled products to support circular programs, and projects like this show what is possible when companies come together to innovate,” Thoman says. “Composters are generally mission-driven people and want to improve the environment through waste diversion and soil health. These bags wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the enthusiasm from the entire supply chain throughout the production process. It’s an important step for an industry that relies on packaging to bring products to market.”

Buffalo River Compost’s 1-cubic-foot bags of Brian’s Best Compost will be available for sale beginning this spring at local garden centers in western New York. F