Driscoll’s joins New Plastics Economy Global Commitment

Watsonville, Calif.-based Driscoll’s has signed on to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, an initiative designed to minimize the environmental impact of plastic.

Driscoll’s has promised to support that goal by making progress in the following areas in the coming years: eliminating problematic or unnecessary packaging; moving from single-use to reuse models where relevant; making 100% of plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable; and increasing the amount of recycled content used in plastic packaging.

“Better berries deserve better packaging,” Driscoll’s chairman and CEO J. Miles Reiter said in a news release. “Signing the Global Commitment elevates our existing work by holding us to a higher standard and serves as a commitment to transparency as well as annual reporting to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastic.”

Walmart and Ahold Delhaize are among the more than 500 organizations that have joined the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is focused on creating a circular economy, is leading the effort in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme.

“Our vision is for a world where plastic never becomes waste or pollution,"  Sander Defruyt, New Plastics Economy lead for the foundation, said in the release. "It will be a challenging journey, but by coming together we can eliminate the plastics we don’t need and innovate, so the plastics we do need can be safely and easily circulated – keeping them in the economy and out of the environment.”