The Food Research Center of Excellence for Safety and Health funded by the Sonoco Foundation is evaluating composting systems for degradable food packaging.  Given the funding source, bioplastics will be a major area of research.  A number of states and jurisdictions in the U.S. have or are in the process of introducing regulations limiting the disposal of packaging in landfills.  Voluntary commitments include the U.S. Plastic Pact.

Currently food manufacturers are pursuing low-hanging fruit including tea bags and coffee pods.  Egg packaging will be an important area for evaluation with improvements in selection of materials, retrieval for recycling and processing with the objective of replacing virgin material.