Plastic bags are just the start – Foodstuffs committed to further change
Foodstuffs
Foodstuffs, the owners of New World, PAK'nSAVE and Four
Square, have today pledged to focus even more on reducing the
impact of plastic packaging in our environment.
Steve Anderson, Managing Director Foodstuffs NZ says, "We
were delighted to sign up to the New Zealand Plastic Packaging
Declaration - it is a great way for us to cement our commitment to
reducing waste throughout our business and our communities. We take
our responsibility to the environment very seriously - and nowhere
is this more evident than in our stores where we are making huge
strides in reducing waste."
Foodstuffs was the first retailer in New Zealand to
introduce kerbside recyclable food trays containing 50% recycled
PET; providing customers the opportunity to divert up to 80 million
food trays from landfill every year. This change required the
business to liaise with recyclers and Councils throughout New
Zealand.
Trays collected at the kerbside are recycled in both New
Zealand and Australia by innovative New Zealand companies like
Flight Plastics. This great domestic circular economy sees Flight
re-processing Foodstuffs' rPET butchery trays into packaging used
by both our Private label brands and produce suppliers, which then
appear back in Foodstuffs' stores.
Anderson says, "A key part of our pledge is to work with
suppliers to help them transition to more sustainable packaging
materials which contain recycled content and can be recycled
themselves at kerbside or back at store.
"Foodstuffs offers a range of sustainable bags at checkout
and has pledged to completely phase out single use plastic check
out bags by the end of this year in New World, PAK'nSAVE and Four
Square supermarkets."
In addition, the business offers soft plastic recycling at
the majority of their supermarkets and is working towards 100%
availability. Foodstuffs stores account for 8 tonnes of soft
plastics collected each week - with the top 10 stores by volume all
being Foodstuffs supermarkets among the companies taking
part.
Anderson confirms that, "As part of our commitment to the
Plastic Packaging Declaration Foodstuffs will support the
development of a circular economy for plastic by moving to specify
recycled content in more of our packaging, and will work with
industry partners to develop domestic markets for recovered
plastics. 100% of our retail and private label packaging will be
either reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. We will
encourage other companies, including all suppliers, to support the
Declaration by making similar commitments."
