DIETARY SUPPLEMENT COMPANY
USES CORN TO CONTRIBUTE TO PLANET EARTH’S HEALTH
TricorBraun Provides New Line Of Earth-Friendly Packaging
More than 30 years ago, Highland Laboratories was founded on the premise that it could contribute to good health by producing high-quality dietary food supplements. Along the way, it adopted the planet earth, as well. Through the years, the company has made a number of earth-friendly choices about its products and was first in its industry to use a plastic bottle that is manufactured from corn rather than petroleum.
“Corn is a sustainable natural resource while oil is a finite resource. Converting corn to the plastic resin requires 20 percent to 30 percent less energy, and it produces only half the carbon dioxide of oil-based plastics,” according to Candy Scott, Highland Laboratories president.
Bottles made from PLA are commercially compostable in 75 to 80 days, according to Biodegradable Products Institute Executive Director Steve Mojo. By contrast, it takes 1,000 years for a plastic bottle to break down, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new plastic resin is derived from corn byproducts (Polymerized Lactic Acid or PLA) rather than petrochemicals (PET).
“Although the PLA bottles answer environmental concerns at a number of levels, they had been expensive, but now, they are price competitive with PET,” according to Aimee Heidrich, a food and beverage packaging consultant with TricorBraun.
Within two years, Highland Laboratories plans to bottle all of its 250 supplements in the corn-derived packaging. Highland Laboratories pioneered the use of recycled paper and soy ink for its sales literature and catalogs more than a decade ago, and it uses recycled payer, soy ink and soy varnish for its product labels.
Highland Laboratories is a manufacturer of nutritional supplements with headquarters in Mt. Angel, Ore.
TricorBraun is one of the world’s leading suppliers of packaging with 30 distribution centers throughout North America.St. Louis-based TricorBraun is one of the nation’s leading designer, developer and supplier of rigid packaging for a wide range of industries. The company has more than 100 years of experience in design, engineering and global sourcing which allows it to offer it’s customers a comprehensive array of rigid packaging options engineered to deliver success. For more information, please visit www.tricorbraun.com