Interesting response from Eggland's Best

• My dear friend, Mrs.AB wrote to Egglands Best:

Hello, My name is Mrs.AB and I love your eggs. I just wish they came in packaging I could recycle. Please tell me how you can help, or why you continue to use styrofoam. Thank You,


Eggland's Best response:


Eggland's Best Packaging Recycling
Polystyrene Foam Packaging



Eggland’s Best shares your concern about the environment. We pay
careful consideration to our packaging choices, and only after in-depth
study did we decide to package our Eggland’s Best eggs in polystyrene
foam packaging. We made this decision not only for its superior
protection and merchandising of our eggs, but also for the overall
environmental impact of polystyrene vs pulp paper cartons.

Below are some facts about the recyclability of the Eggland’s Best
egg carton, and some facts we came to know about polystyrene
packaging vs. paper packaging:

• The Eggland’s Best polystyrene carton is recyclable.

• Recycled polystyrene can be used in foam packaging peanuts,
CD jewel boxes, office supplies, video cassette casings, packaging,
and many other uses.

• As more products are packaged in polystyrene foam, more and more
communities are accepting this packaging in their recycling programs.

• If your community does not collect foam egg cartons, you may send
clean Eggland’s Best cartons to our carton manufacturer at: Dolco
Packaging, PO Box 1005, 2110 Patterson Street, Decatur, IN 46733-5005.



Facts you might find Interesting regarding
plastic foam packaging vs. paper packaging

• It takes three times more material in waste paper to make a
pulp carton for a dozen eggs than polystyrene foam.

• Furthermore, the manufacture of plastic packaging requires
less energy to make and results in less pollution than
paperboard counterparts.

• It is a commonly held misperception that paper products,
like pulp egg cartons, degrade readily. This is a true statement
when considering composting programs or when these types
of products end up as litter. The fact is that modern landfills are
covered daily and compacted over time, which means all materials,
including paper products, remain unchanged for many, many
years. In fact, because degradation of materials creates potentially
harmful liquid and gaseous by-products that could contaminate
groundwater and air, today’s landfills are designed to minimize
contact with air and water required for degradation.

• In an article printed in US News and World Report, August 26, 1996,
Stephen Budiansky refers to a comprehensive environmental study
that “found that a plastic cup takes half as much energy to make and
results in 35% fewer pounds of toxic chemicals released into the
environment than a paper cup does. Partly that’s because a plastic
cup uses a lot less plastic than a paper cup uses paper; plastic
products typically weigh one sixth as much as paper products that do
the same job. But it’s also because pulp and paperboard mills, though
much cleaner than in the past, still generate substantial toxic emissions.”

• Also, in the past 20 years, plastic packaging has become 50% more
efficient. In the 1970s an ounce of plastic could hold just 23 ounces of
product, today an ounce of plastic holds 34 ounces of product due to
improvements in strength.


Alice Taylor
Consumer Services Specialist
Eggland’s Best, Inc.
860 First Avenue, Suite 842
King of Prussia, PA 19406
Phone: 610-265-6500
Toll Free: 800-922-3447
Fax: 610-265-8380
ataylor@eggland.com
www.eggland.com


Doodiepants responds:

I'm sure they had to take into account packaging that protects them from breaking, and I'm sure it would take a lot of paper to pad them adequately. And of course that paper is virgin wood harvested from the depths of the rainforest (or some other mostly non-renewable old wood). And of course it doesn't biodegrade easily when it's piled 16 tons deep in a landfill. BUT petroleum-based items suck in general. Non-renewable resource, habitat destruction, yadda yadda yadda. You know all this. But good for them for finding and creatively using statistics...


I wonder if Eggland's best will recycle ALL of the #6's that I can't seem to recycle anywhere else...

Any companies that are listening:

PLEASE STOP OVER PACKAGING

PLEASE STOP USING #6's WHEN YOU DO "HAVE" TO OVER PACKAGE

With sincere thanks...