In this age of renewed environmental awareness, few things are as frustrating as receiving a package and being left with a pile of foam packaging. According to KTM Industries, their biodegradable foam that literally dissolves down the drain has been gaining traction.
This week, Perdue Farms launched a new e-commerce website allowing shoppers to buy chicken and other meats directly from the company. But tucked into the announcement was news about how these frozen orders will be shipped to consumers: 鈥淎ll packaging from online orders is 100 percent recyclable,鈥� Perdue wrote. 鈥淭he foam insulation is made from water-soluble cornstarch, which can be composted or even disintegrated under running water and safely rinsed down a kitchen sink.鈥�
Green Cell Foam is a corn-based foam packaging replacement that is being billed as offering 鈥渢he most flexibility and convenience in disposal options of ANY packaging material鈥攇oing far beyond just recycling.鈥�
KTM Industries, which produces the 鈥淯SDA Certified Biobased Product and 100 Percent Compostable鈥� foam, says you can compost it, dissolve large pieces in a bucket of water, or even 鈥減ut small pieces in the sink and watch it 鈥榤elt鈥� safely down the drain鈥� in under 60 seconds. 鈥淕reen Cell Foam is safe for drains, septic tanks and waste treatment centers,鈥� the company further explains.
Perdue isn鈥檛 the only big name that鈥檚 jumped on the Green Cell Foam bandwagon: In the past year, Jenny Craig, Crowd Cow, and Canada鈥檚 NIKU Farms have all added the packaging鈥攚hich purportedly also 鈥渞equires 70 percent less energy and produces 80 percent less greenhouse gases than petroleum-based foams.鈥� So the likely explanation as to why this biodegradable foam is gaining visibility now is that more companies are looking for sustainable options and they want to show off those credentials once they have them.