May 17 2009
Mexican leading baked goods company Grupo Bimbo, the world leader in production and sales volume, with presence in 18 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, announced that Organizacion Barcel, one of its subsidiaries, has begun using degradable metallic polypropylene packaging for its products, which disintegrates within a period of 3 to 5 years after the product's shelf life.
Michael Laurier, Director of Symphony Environmental Technologies PLC, awarded Daniel Servitje, CEO of Grupo Bimbo, a certificate for becoming the first company in the world to launch degradable metallic packaging. Barcel will be the first snack company to incorporate this degradable eco-friendly material, beginning with its Takis snacks line.
The measure will be gradually implemented on every Grupo Bimbo product at the global level, with degradable metallic packaging fully incorporated by the first quarter of 2011.
Grupo Bimbo requested that this technology preserve the freshness, flavor, and features of all their products as identically as when using traditional wrappings.
The technology works by incorporating a pro-degrading additive during the packagings' manufacturing process, which helps break the plastics' molecular chains, causing the plastic to degrade at the end of its lifetime.