Scottish berry supplier Angus Soft Fruits has said that it plans to work with its 18 growers to eliminate over 150 tonnes of single use plastic a year.
The plans will focus on switching to fully recyclable punnets that are also made from 100 per cent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). Last year the group produced enough berries to fill 42 million punnets. PET is considered to be highly recyclable, but it has proved difficult to collect clean recycled material for food use.
Sustainability coordinator Catherine Russell said, “We have ambitious sustainability plans here at Angus Soft Fruits across packaging, carbon emissions, biodiversity and food waste. Previously our punnets were made from 80 per cent recycled materials as it has always been a challenge for the food industry to find sufficient volumes of clean, high-quality plastics that can be recycled and enter the market as food grade containers.
“We’re pleased that our long-term suppliers, Waddington Europe, have achieved this and we look forward to working closely with them to continue to promote circularity in soft fruit packaging.”
The company is also working closely with thermoforming packaging specialist Waddington Europe to achieve a 5-10 per cent gauge reduction across all Waddington Europe punnets.