Green Bay Packaging has received $2 million from Congress to develop a more environmentally friendly container for U.S. soldiers' combat food, the so-called meals ready to eat, a company executive announced Wednesday in Wausau.

"I am very confident that we can come up with a solution to meet their needs," General Manager Marty Olson said. "But it will take some time."

Research will begin this summer to develop a package -- perhaps a corrugated box with some coatings -- that would be less expensive than the container now used, and could be discarded in compost piles or recycled, he said.

It must be durable enough to withstand "extreme temperature variations" and hold up in wet conditions, Olson said. "We have some solutions that we currently use for the fresh produce market that will give us a start."

U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wausau, visited the Wausau plant Wednesday for an update on the project after including the research money in the 2010 Defense Department budget.

Green Bay Packaging anticipates developing within three years a toxin-free, soy-infused, compostable and highly durable MRE container to replace toxic, nonrecyclable fiberboard materials now used, Obey said.

"This project has the potential to not only reduce the weight of supplies and minimize the environmental footprint of Department of Defense food packaging systems, but also to keep good jobs in Wausau," Obey said in a statement.

The military consumes nearly 47 million combat meals each year, generating 14,117 tons of packaging waste, including metal, plastic and glass, the congressman said.

Those meals are shipped in about 2 million fiberboard containers before the plastic-wrapped food is distributed to military personnel, Olson said.

He said the military now buries most of the discarded packaging in landfills or leaves it in the field.

Green Bay Packaging will hire a project manager and a packaging engineer to work on the research, the executive said. Another 10 people currently employed by the company also will be involved.

If a new package is developed, an unknown number of jobs might be added at the plant for production, or existing jobs might be more secure, Olson said. The company, with 180 employees in Wausau, manufactures corrugated packaging, boxes and displays.

Green Bay Packaging, headquartered in Green Bay, has 30 divisions in 15 states.

Olson said the military research is new for his company.

"We haven't done any government work in the past," he said. "There is a lot of dotting of i's and crossing of t's as we go. We are excited. It should be a neat package."