Dive Brief:
- Danone, the world's largest producer of yogurt, has moved 5% of its yogurts to new containers made with bio-based polylactic acid, or PLA. The PLA cups replace those made with petroleum-based high-impact polystyrene.
- The first of Danone's brands to begin the transition is Stonyfield Farms brand organic yogurt. Other brands in the Danone family will follow.
- The company is making the move as a way to protect itself from price fluctuations associated with oil prices, and to guard against the possibility that non-bio containers could face a consumer backlash.
Dive Insight:
This seems like wonderful news to us. Polystyrene is a widely popular material for packaging, but it does carry a certain menace about it. It seems only a matter of time before someone somewhere creates an anti-polystyrene media frenzy.
We also hope that Danone's move will prompt someone at rival Yoplait to rethink those weird-shaped containers that trap small animals.