Giant baker Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV is switching to biodegradable packaging for all its products in Mexico. The move is part of a project called 'Committed to the Environment' which Bimbo launched in November 2007.
Bimbo said it started introducing biodegradable packaging last year. Without providing details, it said the technology reduces the period of degradation from 100 years to between three and five.
It didn’t say how long it will take to complete the switch to biodegradable packaging on all its brands. But sliced bread brands, including Wonder, are now stamped with a seal that reads ‘100 percent degradable’ on their plastic packaging.
In early 2009 Bimbo unveiled in Mexico what it claimed were the world’s first oxo-biodegradable, metallised polypropylene snack bags, using additive technology developed by British company Symphony Environmental Technologies plc and sold under the d2w trademark. The technology was used for a snack brand called Barcel.
Bimbo managing director Daniel Servitje Montull said Barcel’s oxo-biodegradable re-packaging programme is due to be completed by the end of 2010.
Grupo Bimbo operates in 17 countries across the American continent and in Asia and has 98 production plants. Wonder is one of its 150-plus brands, which market 7,000 products.