Plastic versus cardboard

Choosing plastic containers

At Laiterie de Coaticook, no effort is spared to offer you high-quality products, free from modified milk ingredients, with the smallest possible ecological footprint, all for the well-being and future of Quebec families.

Many consumers ask us why we use plastic and not cardboard containers for our ice cream. With this blog post, we'd like to give you a better understanding of our positioning as an ice cream manufacturer.

Find out how here!

Some useful facts about plastic containers

Here are some interesting facts to help you understand what's at stake with plastic versus cardboard:

• According to Recyc-Québec, it is important to note that our containers, made of HDPE (Plastic No. 2) offer an excellent recovery rate of almost 70%. This rate is currently well higher than that of laminated cardboard ice cream containerswhich stands at around 25%.

• Once in the sorting centers, HDPE (n°2) offers the best resale value among all plastics.

• Cardboard packaging is multi-layered, i.e. it includes a polyethylene barrier inside and out. Recycling this type of container is more complexHowever, it is difficult for recyclers to find outlets for it. Most of this cardboard ends up in bales of mixed paper, and most of it is recycled. sent for export, landfill and incineration.

We are committed to reducing our ecological footprint

Although this information seems to indicate that our plastic containers are less damaging than we might think, Laiterie de Coaticook is still on the lookout for opportunities that allow us to reduce your ecological footprint. Here are a few concrete examples of improvements :

• In 2016, we changed our containers in order to reduce weight of each of them. Although minimal on a unit basis, this reduction represents 15 tonnes less plastic in circulation on the market annually.

• In 2018, we modified the plastic packaging of our traditional ice cream log to convert it to a plastic in PET (n°1) 100 % recyclable.

• Last February, a representative of Laiterie de Coaticook took part in the first Quebec-France meeting forum on innovation in plastic packaging recycling. During the forum, several companies presented new technologies that will come increase plastic recycling capacity.

• We also know that our containers are easily reusable - and highly reused! - for many home applications.

HDPE also provides significant advantages for the storing a frozen product like our ice cream.

Finally, since there's a lot of information out there about recycling, it's important to be vigilant and to treat this data with diligence. If you have any questions about the use of plastic containers or the environmental aspects of our industry, please don't hesitate to contact us! We look forward to hearing from you.

We also welcome your comments, always constructive for us!