Nellie's Nest Cage-Free Eggs

Respecting Our Environment

Our Packaging

We're concerned about our impact on the environment. That's why we choose recycled plastic over pulp cartons for our Nellie's Nest eggs.

Two important reasons for using plastic are presentation and protection. We're proud of our beautiful brown eggs. The plastic packaging shows off and protects them better than a pulp carton. We want our eggs to reach your refrigerator just the way they left the farm.

But the most important reason is that when our plastic carton is recycled again, it's less harmful to the environment than a recycled pulp carton.

In many parts of the country, there's a surplus of recycled soda bottle plastic. The soda companies will not use recycled plastic from their own production because it's not as clear as new plastic.

For the production of our cartons, recycled plastic is collected, washed, melted and reformed into egg cartons. There are no harsh chemicals. The process has no waste and no toxicity. Any excess plastic from the process is simply recycled again.

Recycling plastic also consumes less energy, water and chemicals than pulp.

Pulp recycling uses strong chemicals and great deal of water to breakdown, de-ink, bleach, reform and dye the pulp. The waste slurry and sludge from this process must be reprocessed and disposed. Pulp carton moulding machines make hundreds of cartons per minute and require massive dryers using a tremendous amount of heat and energy to dry the cartons.

And, unless pulp cartons are recycled or composted, they will not break down in a landfill. This may seem counterintuitive, but pulp and paper buried in a landfill away from oxygen will be preserved for nearly 10,000 years! Newspapers from the 1930's are still legible upon excavation from landfills (read The World Without Us by Alan Weisman).

We urge you to recycle our cartons. They're made from PETE1, the most commonly recycled plastic. They can be recycled with your soda and water bottles. If you're not able to recycle them in your community, please accumulate the cartons and mail them back to us for recycling. We'll reimburse you for the shipping costs.

Thanks so much for doing your part to help our environment.