CABOT, Vt. (WCAX) – Cabot’s manufacturing line is getting a sustainable makeover. The Vermont company has spent years researching more sustainable alternatives to its plastic packaging for its award-winning cheese, and the solution is the first of its kind in the nation.
“It contains recycled content in the actual packaging itself,” said Jason Martin of Cabot Creamery, which just announced its transition to using 30% post-consumer recycled packaging for its eight-ounce cheese bars.
“It’s run great on our production lines and provides that same look, feel that our customers are expecting from our brand,” said Martin.
In 2022, Cabot used a nearly $324,000 grant from the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center to kick-start the creation. Partnering with TC Transcontinental Packaging, they tested compostable, fully recycled, and 30% recycled packaging. Martin said the last option made the cut, achieving the same quality and cost consumers are used to.
“Preserving freshness of the product and preserving the rate for which the product could run down the production line,” he said.
By the end of the year, all eight-ounce cheese bars will be wrapped in recycled packaging. Cabot estimates it will save water during manufacturing and reduce their carbon footprint by up to 25%.
The packaging is the latest in a line of recent updates at the creamery. This spring, they added a mechanical box cutter and cheese slicer, more than doubling their output in cracker-cut cheese slices.
“For me, personally, it’s a very nice thing that employees get to interact with new, state-of-the-art equipment that helps benefit the company and them,” said John Kendall of Cabot Creamery.
He says the new equipment can also boost safety, saving employees from lifting 80-pound blocks of cheese.
“Safety is huge because it’s very hard to hire in Vermont, so the employees you have to keep them on the lines working,” Kendall said.
As for the new packaging, Cabot officials say they’re excited to make their yellow a little more green.
“Really feels great as a packager of products, to make sure that we’re delivering what the consumer wants from us,” said Martin.
Cabot says the new wrappers should be trashed just the same as standard plastic wrapping. They say they hope to eventually adopt recyclable or compostable packaging.