BASF debuts compostable snack bags at baseball park

- Biopolymer technology to reduce waste from snack bags

 

- Advancement receives broad endorsement

 

Chemical company BASF will debut prototype compostable packaging manufactured with advanced biopolymer technology at tonight's (September 5) Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball match against the Boston Red Sox.

 

The first 10,000 fans to arrive at the Safeco Field tonight will receive free peanuts in a 100 percent compostable snack bag.

 

The Seattle Mariners are a member of the Green Sports Alliance, a non-profit organization that works to help sports teams, venues and leagues enhance their environmental performance.

 

This season, the team is on track to divert 85 percent of its waste from landfills, up from just 12 percent in 2006. 

 

BASF said this makes the Safeco Field an ideal place to introduce this new sustainable packaging.

 

Kimberley Schiltz, market development manager for Consumer Packaging at BASF, said: ‘Flexible packaging with this BASF technology is a big step forward for the snack food industry

 

‘It means that popular snack foods can be brought to market in compostable packaging that delivers needed shelf-life at a competitive price point, with a more sustainable “end-of-life” solution than with conventional packaging materials.’

 

Scott Jenkins, vice president of operations at the Seattle Mariners, has his sights set on achieving 90 percent diversion, but closing the gap has proven to be an elusive goal.

 

He said: ‘All of our service ware is already compostable, but snack food bags have been one of the biggest barriers preventing us from getting to our goal.

 

‘Flexible packaging made with BASF biopolymers could represent the holy grail of greening for our waste stream.

 

‘Whenever there are contaminants in our compost stream, like regular snack bags and candy wrappers, we have to pay a premium to have them removed by hand.  If all of the snacks sold at Safeco came in compostable packaging, it would represent a significant savings of time and money for the team and get us a whole lot closer to achieving zero waste.’

 

BASF’s biopolymer technology has received endorsement from other quarters also.

 

Stephan Banchero, Cedar Grove Composting general manager, said: ‘Compostable snack food packaging made with BASF’s advanced technology can put us much further down the path to a zero-waste world, much faster.’

 

Brett Stav, Seattle public utilities, senior planning and development specialist, said: ‘We welcome technological advances like this that inspire our entire society to move toward sustainability and help municipalities like the City of Seattle divert more waste than ever away from landfills.’

 

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