A question that we hear from time to time is: "I love your eggs and your commitment to animal welfare and the environment, but why do you use plastic egg cartons? Isn't that worse for the environment?"
It's an excellent question. We've all come to see plastic as bad. It's derived from a non-renewable source (oil), it doesn't decompose for a very long time, and these days, a lot of it is winding into the oceans (see Pacific Garbage Patch and Microbeads Pollution). So it's understandable that it has a bad reputation.
On the other hand, the molded pulp cartons and the polystyrene foam cartons are not environmental bargains either, for many of the same reasons. So what's a well-meaning person to do?
We asked Quantis, a Canadian research company specializing in environmental impact of products, to do a complete Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Egg Cartons for us in 2012.
Quantis looked across the raw material sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and end of life/recycling aspects for RPET (our recycled PET clear package), virgin PET, Recycled Molded Pulp (RMP) and Polystyrene (commonly known as styrofoam). They scored that as a total Carbon/Climate Change footprint score based on all of those life stages. They also scored them on the basis of Human Health, Ecosystem Quality, and Resource Depletion measures.
The RPET carton that we use was determined to be superior, or vastly superior, to both the Molded Pulp and Polystyrene as a whole, and across all of the individual life stages, with the one exception that it had a slightly higher manufacturing impact than recycled pulp. It is worth noting that the worst option, was typically the PET plastic made from virgin plastic. That's because of the high amount of fossil fuels required both as energy and raw material in its production. This is what large 2-liter soda bottles are made from (so think about that the next time you're considering buying soda). We take the recycled material from those containers to make our cartons. The tri-fold PET also has an important consumer benefit in that it provides the best protection for the eggs while allowing you to see the unbroken eggs without opening the carton in the store.
Once used, our cartons can then be placed right back in the recycling stream for another trip through the system. Paper pulp can also be recycled. Styrofoam all goes to the landfill to wait for the end of time.
In keeping with our ongoing commitment to a modern, science-backed approach to our packaging, we partnered with Scrapp Inc. in 2023 in an effort to better understand the impact of our egg cartons and ensure that our decision to use recycled plastic is still the best choice for our environment today. Read Scrapp's report here.
So in total, while we wish we could sell our eggs in wooden boxes or wicker baskets that were reused over and over, we feel as though we've arrived at the best possible solution we can for the time being. We ask that you always recycle your Nellie's Free Range cartons after use and we can continue to keep our carbon footprint as low as possible. And thank you for bringing our eggs home in a reusable canvas bag as well.
