Elk Grove Village, IL — Snyder's of Hanover is now packing its line of organic pretzels in bioplastic derived from corn.
Clear Lam Packaging made the new bags for Synder's using NatureWorks' Ingeo polylactic acid (PLA) film.
NatureWorks' PLA is derived from corn and uses about half the energy and emits about half the greenhouse gases as traditional plastic packaging does during manufacturing.
The packaging was created over a year of research and development, and the main challenge, Clear Lam said, was creating a bag with the same performance of traditional plastic packaging.
The new bags are more than 90-percent plant-based, and to provide an oxygen and moisture barrier, the Ingeo film is laminated with a plant-based plastic layer that includes a thin metalized layer.
Both Snyder's and Clear Lam have been working on reducing the environmental impacts of packaging. Clean Lam has a three point Project EarthClear initiative in place that is focusing on using renewable materials, increasing recycled content and lightweighting.
Snyder's also uses corn-based bioplastic film for its variety packs, uses shipping cartons with 50 percent recycled content, prints its packaging with water-based inks and uses 100 percent recycled paperboard for its Lunch Packs.