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Products that travel far must be well protected and packaged. But let’s handle packaging responsibly. At Farmhouse, that means finding the balance between product and packaging. Because packaging also has a purpose. Well packaged food often prevents waste. We do not want any packaging to be wasted, no unnecessary use of packaging material, but certainly no food waste.
We want to have made our own packaging more sustainable by 2025. We will do this in four ways:
The measure with the greatest environmental impact is simple: reducing packaging material. Is a product quite robust, because of its protective shell and a long shelf life, for example? Then packaging is not even necessary. Is packaging functional? Then we will optimise both the packaging and the logistics process. We are also looking for new packaging concepts, including reuse.
If packaging is made of one material, recycling is easier. The consumer can simply throw it away. If a label is required, both materials must be the same or the adhesive must be easily washable so that it can be washed away during the recycling process. For materials such as black plastic, polystyrene and expanded polyethylene, recycling is not an option. These are burned – and that is exactly what we do not want.
Sometimes packaging is required. Because of protection, shelf life or turnover ratio. In that case we like to keep it sustainable, with paper and cardboard with FSC or PEFC certification. This guarantees responsible forest management.
Plastic is more complex. Recycled PET (rPET) can be reused as packaging material, for transparent trays for example. Fortunately, more and more alternatives to plastic are coming from sustainable and renewable sources, such as sugar cane, lactic acid and PEF. As soon as the technology makes it possible to package products properly, we will transfer.
Biodegradable or compostable plastics are still simply incinerated and not recycled. These plastics only compost in a controlled environment, not in the environment. Even ordinary plastic is still a better option, because it can be recycled.
We can do a lot about the packaging problem ourselves, but we also involve suppliers, customers and consumers. For example, consumers can read on every package what material it is and how they can dispose of it. Because together we make a cleaner world.
