BASF, a company manufacturing and delivering chemical solutions globally, has devised an innovative and sustainable packaging for snacks using its biopolymer technology. Previous attempts in the industry to develop a green alternative for snack packaging have not met with success.
BASF’s compostable snack packaging is expected to fulfill the expectations that have been unmet by previous launches. BASF will unveil its innovative packaging on September 5 at the Safeco Field where a major league baseball match is to take place between the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox teams. For the launch, BASF is partnering with the Seattle Mariners, known to be the greenest major league baseball team, to offer a free bag of peanuts packaged in their 100% compostable snack bag to the first 10,000 fans that arrive at the stadium.
The Seattle Mariners is a member of the Green Sports Alliance and pursues an aggressive goal of zero waste. The team is doing well in their effort to redirect 85% of their waste from garbage disposal sites. This is a significant improvement from the 12% diversion of waste in 2006. The team is now looking to improve their goal to 90%. This has however been a challenge as there were limited options for change with all the service ware of the team being compostable. According to Scott Jenkins, Vice President of Operations for the Seattle Mariners, the sustainable snack bags from BASF is the solution that has been eluding them till now. An indication of the economic benefits associated with this green technology is the elimination of the expensive process to remove regular snack package from the compost stream.