Ben and Jerry’s began in 1978 by 2 guys creating ice cream from a renovated ‘gas station’ in Vermont. They began with a $5 course in ice cream-making and a $12,000 investment ($4,000 of it borrowed.)
Screenshot of the movements Ben & Jerry’s support - from their website.
“Our mission is to make the best possible ice cream in the nicest possible way, and to make sure we’re looking out for the planet as much as we are people.”
Their tubs now have 40% less plastic in them, making them more widely recyclable, and the plastic that is left is now made from a renewable plant source. This material is called BIO PE. This means that the source for their packaging materials comes from sugar cane rather than fossil fuels, so it’s plant-based. On their website, it says to rinse and squash the packaging before recycling it in the cardboard and paper bin.
They have also got a new recycling logo on the tubs to show the public that they can be put into the recycling bin.
Other products such as the Cookie Dough Peace Pops come on a wooden stick inside a wrapper made with 88% paper, making it widely recyclable in the UK.
Frozen Cookie Dough Chunks are another snack that comes in a sharable snack bag. That snack bag is a pouch that’s made of 100% LDPE and carries the 4LDPE logo.
(LDPE is a mono-material that can technically be recycled. However, it’s not always widely recycled yet in the UK but they are working on that.)
In 2002, One Sweet Whirled was created. It is an environmental action website and also an ice cream flavour as Ben and Jerry’s partnered with Dave Matthews Band and SaveOurEnvironment.org in a campaign to help fight global warming.
It is a coffee, caramel ice cream with fudge chunks and swirls of marshmallow & salted caramel and there are lots of petitions to bring the flavour back!
