• USA Today, Thursday, July 9, 2009 10:37 AM

Earthbound Farm, the nation's largest grower of organic produce, is announcing today that it will use only 100% post-consumer plastic in all of its clamshell packaging, Bruce Horovitz reports. It will be the first national cut-salad company to make this move although giant food makers, including ConAgra and Kraft, have been experimenting with greater use of post-consumer plastics.

PepsiCo's Naked Juice brand, meanwhile, is unveiling plans to do the same for its bottles. Its clear, 32-ounce plastic bottles will be out on Monday. Its other bottles will be converted in 2010, saving the equivalent of 57,000 barrels of oil per year, the company says.

A survey of 1,000 consumers by Ipsos Marketing found that environmental packaging by food companies has emerged as the third most important purchasing factor for North American consumers. Industry lingo for this environmentally friendly plastic is PCR PET - post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate.

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