Scottish berry supplier Angus Soft Fruits is switching its punnets to 100% recycled material, helping the company save more than 150 tonnes of single use plastic in the coming year.
Angus, backed by its popular AVA Berries brand says that will include its strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. It supplies most of the leading supermarkets in the UK and produced fruit that could fill more than 40 million plastic punnets last year.
“We have ambitious sustainability plans across packaging, carbon emissions, biodiversity and food waste, and we are pleased to announce that almost all the berries we supply will now be packaged in 100% rPET punnets,” said Angus Sustainability Coordinator Catherine Russell.
Supplier Waddington Europe, a thermoforming packaging specialist that has worked closely through the years with Angus, successfully created the punnet, which is from 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). It is hoping in the future to create a plastic that is a thinner gauge.
“Previously our punnets were made from 80% 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, Russell said.
Waddington already has achieved Zero Waste to Landfill status across all of its manufacturing sites in the UK and Ireland. Angus says it is hoping to be net zero throughout our supply chain, from grower to customer, by 2040 and we want to share the best practices that we develop with our overseas growers. Moving our punnets sold in the UK to 100% rPET is a step in the right direction to achieving these goals.”
