(Pictured above: Reusable ice cream containers in our 18 below zero freezer – ready for dipping!)
Before it was called being green, we began to figure out ways to reduce our waste and try to use less energy and resources. Our origin is growing up on a farm, and small farmers tend to look for ways to save! Young’s started using plastic three-gallons and lids for our ice cream more than 25 years ago. Before then, we used disposable cardboard containers with metal rims (the old timers around here remember these – the metal rims were very sharp).
The cardboard ice cream containers were used one time only; we then threw them out. By reusing plastic containers, we get about 10-15 or so uses for each container before it develops a crack or becomes otherwise unsuitable for ice cream. We estimate over the past 25 years we have used about 320,000 fewer three-gallon ice cream containers. That’s 320,000 fewer in the landfill, fewer trees used and less overall energy used.
More articles on Being Green at Young’s later in the year.