- Earth day activities educate students on how plastic can drive meaningful change for the planet.
According to the company’s website news release on April 21, 2023, in celebration of Earth Day, Berry Global recently held its annual Earth Day event at its global headquarters in Evansville, IN. Hosting nearly 1,000 elementary students from across the local community, Berry volunteers gave tours of the company’s largest manufacturing facility, offering an up-close look at the plastic manufacturing process. Tours also included educational presentations and activities from Berry and its community partners focused on the light weight, protective, low-carbon benefits of plastic and useful tips for students to aid more reducing, reusing, and recycling in their daily lives. For over 30 years, Berry has celebrated Earth Day with this event for local students.
“Achieving a more sustainable future means we first must offer education in our communities about how to give plastic, made from precious natural resources, multiple lives,” said Robert Flores, VP of Sustainability at Berry. “Our Earth Day community outreach program is about leveraging the power of community partnership and early education to accelerate a circular economy.”
In preparation for the event, Berry invited the elementary students to submit design ideas for Berry Evansville’s 2023 Earth Day logo. The winning design was featured on Berry’s Earth Day t-shirts. Participating classrooms were also provided curriculum from Junior Achievement and Berry to promote career paths within Berry and the manufacturing industry, including an overview of how different roles at Berry implement the reduce, reuse, recycle method.
The event highlighted the value of collaborating with value chain members and organizations to achieve More Together for the planet. Contributions from several supplier and community partners, including Green Bay Packaging, Wesselman Woods, Keep Evansville Beautiful, and Republic Services, played an integral role in making the event a success. Another example of Berry’s collaborations in the Evansville area is its partnership with the Evansville materials recovery facility (MRF) to improve polypropylene recycling through the purchase and installation of a new AMP Robotics Cortex™ high-speed robotics system. Recovered material from the MRF is reused in Berry’s products, but more importantly, learnings from the robot are evaluated and shared to enhance and promote polypropylene recycling.
