Hey, Football Fans: Recycle Pizza Boxes, Please!
Most pizza lovers stocking up for football’s championship game know they can recycle pizza boxes, but an alarming 40 percent say they don’t always do so.
That’s the main finding of a national survey by sustainable packaging leader DS Smith, which said pizza boxes are indeed 100 percent recyclable. Pizza boxes can be easily recycled providing any crumbs and cheese are removed before they go into recyclable trash.
With 12.5 million pizzas expected to be sold on Sunday, Feb. 12, that’s almost enough material from 12-inch by 12-inch boxes to stretch from the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City … and back.
In the run-up to the NFL’s Big Game between those two teams, DS Smith is calling on all fans to properly recycle pizza boxes.
“We are driven to make changes both big and small in how the packaging industry operates to contribute to a more sustainable future,” said DS Smith’s Melanie Galloway, vice president, sales, marketing and innovation. “Part of that mission includes educating consumers on what they can do to be part of the solution, too, even something as simple as being sure to recycle your pizza boxes.”
The company survey, taken Jan. 27-30, found that two-thirds (67 percent) of adults believe pizza boxes are recyclable – ranking fifth among a list of popular items. Leading the way is plastic water bottles, with 88 percent of respondents saying they can be recycled. Next came newspapers or magazines (82 percent) and glass jars and milk cartons (both at 75 percent).
Even with high recognition among consumers that pizza containers should go into recyclable trash, three of five adults say they don’t always do so – with 19 percent saying they never do, 11 percent only sometimes and 10 percent rarely.
Still, a majority of those surveyed – 60 percent – respond that they recycle, with 43 percent saying they always do so and 17 percent saying most of the time.
DS Smith wants all consumers to know that pizza boxes can be recycled – important because any increase in recycling contributes to a circular economy designed to replace problem plastics, take carbon out of supply chains and prove innovative recycling solutions.
Recovered fibers can be reused as many as 10 times by paper and packaging companies to make new boxes, diverting waste from landfills and incinerators and toward local recycling facilities.
For its part, DS Smith produces a recyclable pizza pad, an insert under the pies used in boxes by major, nationally acclaimed pizza brands. The packaging company sells millions of the pads each year, recording a burst in production amid the frenzy of the football season’s final weeks.
The customizable, 100 percent recyclable pad is flat on one side, facing the bottom of the box, and wavy on the top, keeping the pizza crust crisp and dry. That so-called fluting also helps hold the temperature in the box during deliveries, DS Smith said.
The DS Smith product marks an example of the company’s renewable, fiber-based packaging solutions for hundreds of thousands of products for both traditional and e-commerce retailers, covering wine boxes and ready-meal trays to cardboard coolers and fresh fruit trays.
It marks just one of many ways that DS Smith uses innovation and imagination to create sustainable packaging solutions that support the transition to a circular economy that aims to reduce and eliminate waste and advocates for the reuse of materials.
The poll was taken Jan. 27-30 with 1,221 respondents, a total that generally has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted using an online data collection methodology with the research firm Dynata.
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Hayashi to Lead Team USA at Bocus d’Or Grande Finale
Hawaiian-born and Arizona-raised Chef Jeffery Hayashi will lead Team USA in the 2023 Bocus d’Or Grande Finale.
The 24 worldwide selected teams will compete Jan. 22-23 in Lyon, France for five hours and 30 minutes in two events: While the platter theme features monkfish and other seafood products, the second test, “Feed the Kids” takes the form of an entire menu based on squash, to raise awareness among children and, through this theme, educate them about healthy eating.
Hayashi left an architecture career after his passion for style and precision led him to discover cooking, landing an apprenticeship with chef and chocolatier Philippe Padovani in Hawaii. In 2014, he was the inaugural executive sous chef at Mourad in San Francisco, which received a Michelin star in its first year of operation. Hayashi qualified for the Grande Finale by winning the 2022 Americas Bocuse d’Or in Chile.
Hayashi is chef de cuisine at Senia Restaurant in Honolulu.
Each team will start at regular intervals beginning at 8 a.m. on Jan. 22. Hayashi is scheduled to start Jan. 23 at 9:57 a.m., finish his Feed the Kids menu by 2:53 p.m. and his seafood platter by 3:27 p.m.
This year, instead of the plate contest, the Bocuse d’Or puts education in food and taste for young people through cooking at the center of the candidates’ work.
Today, cooks play a central role in food and culinary education. In the “Feed the kids” contest, each candidate will have to be creative in producing a squash-based menu for children. Several varieties will be provided by competition partner METRO to create a 100 percent vegetable-based cold starter, a hot dish including an egg and a restaurant dessert style. The candidates will have to redouble their creativity, play with textures and flavors to convince the jury of chefs, supported by children from all around the world.
The platter theme honors monkfish, supplied by partner Seafood From Scotland, accompanied by scallops. To enhance the monkfish, the candidates will have to prepare two vegetable garnishes to be placed on the platter as well as a garnish served separately, made from a vegetable from their country, mussels and an individual crouton of their own composition.
The Bocuse d’Or adventure gathers the world’s gastronomic family and federates more than 5,000 chefs spread across 70 countries. With a local and itinerant approach, the Bocuse d’Or has travelled from city to city throughout the world since 2005 for the national and continental selections: in America (Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, etc.), in Asia (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore, etc.), in Africa (Dakhla, Marrakesh, etc.) and in Europe (Brussels, Budapest, Stockholm, Tallinn, Turin, etc.).
Beyond the geo-tourism implications of the event for the involved countries, the traveling selections serve to promote the gastronomic culture of each region and to highlight the vast diversity of world cuisine.
Before reaching the Grand Finale, each team spends two years training to perfect their skills. This makes the Bocuse d’Or much more than just a competition, it is a genuine human experience that combines self-improvement and team spirit.
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Impossible Foods Hires Jagla as Chief Demand Officer
California-based Impossible Foods has hired top consumer goods industry leader Sherene Jagla as its first chief demand officer. Jagla will join the food and climate company to bring its sales, marketing, insights and product development teams into one integrated function under her leadership as it prepares for its next phase of growth.
Jagla’s appointment follows a year of record sales for Impossible Foods. The company continues to be the fastest growing plant-based meat brand in U.S. retail stores, where it experienced more than 50 percent dollar sales growth in 2022. In the food service sector, its flagship Impossible Beef product has been the best-selling product by volume of any plant-based meat brand in the United States.
Named one of the Top Women in Grocery by Progressive Grocer, Jagla joins Impossible with more than 25 years of sales, marketing, and general management experience at Fortune 500 companies across the CPG and food and beverage industries. Most recently, Jagla served as the senior vice president and general manager at Newell Brands, where she was responsible for a $2 billion business across 50 brands in 18 categories. There, she set the strategic direction for the brand’s top customer partnership and created a framework for collaborative growth that combined seven independent operating companies into one scaled organization.
“Our next phase of growth requires tight integration across teams and disciplines, and Sherene knows how to do that and build organizations that scale,” said Peter McGuinness, president and CEO of Impossible Foods. “She’s transformed complex organizations into high-performing businesses, and she has a deep understanding of the food and CPG space. I’ve no doubt her leadership will help transform Impossible into a household name.”
Jagla led sales at Kellogg’s with the world’s largest retailer, where she drove brand innovation in the United States and internationally. Jagla first joined the food company in 2019 to oversee sales of its Kashi cereal brand, expanding the brand’s capabilities to deliver both category and market share growth.
Jagla previously held senior leadership positions at personal care corporation Kimberly-Clark, where she led the commercial sales strategy across brands; retail strategy and execution firm Crossmark, where she built creative solutions for major CPG companies; and beverage company MillerCoors, where she developed breakthrough sales and marketing solutions for their largest brands and customers.
“One of the reasons I was drawn to Impossible is the company’s focus on leading the category and commitment to creating delicious, nutritious, and sustainable food,” Jagla said. “Impossible has created a compelling brand with a strong product portfolio that’s primed for growth. I look forward to working closely with Peter and the Impossible team to build on this foundation.”
Jagla serves on the board of directors for the American Heart Association in Northwest Arkansas and as a guest lecturer at the University of Arkansas Business School.
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