ButcherBox announces $10m packaging partnership with Vericool
ButcherBox, which delivers grass-fed beef, free-range chickens and heritage-bred pork across the US, will begin using Vericool’s packaging, named the Vericooler, which uses compostable insulation and recyclable thermal packets.
Made from consumer waste, the packaging is designed to minimise edge loss, which increases temperature control. When the compostable insulation pillow is removed, the Vericooler can then be placed in kerbside recycling facilities, where available.
According to Vericool, the Vericooler replaces environmentally detrimental expanded polystyrene (EPS — commonly referred to as Styrofoam), and other plastic/foam insulation and ineffective “green” solutions, such as non-recyclable metallised bubble bags, which provide limited-to-no thermal protection.
ButcherBox meats will be frozen and shipped using dry ice in Vericool containers. The move will enable the company to avoid sending 20 to 50 truckloads of expanded polystyrene packaging (EPS) each month to landfill sites.
ButcherBox chief executive Mike Salguero said the business was dedicated to shipping products out in packaging materials that were all biodegradable or recyclable and was impressed by Vericool’s sustainable packaging.
“We first started shipping with EPS foam packaging, which is bad for the environment because EPS is nearly impossible to recycle,” said Salguero. “We then changed to another ‘green’ packaging option, but that product did not perform to our standards.
“Vericoolers keep our products cold from its packaging to the moment that our customers open up their ButcherBox,” he added. “Vericoolers go right into kerbside recycling – and that is really important to us and to our customers.”
Vericool’s CEO Darrell Jobe said its packaging provided ButcherBox with affordable, first-class and sustainable packaging that would safely deliver product to their “conscientious” customers.
ButcherBox claims to be one of the leading meat delivery services in the US that sources meat raised without antibiotics or hormones.
