Fonterra Brands New Zealand (FBNZ) has spearheaded the country’s first recycling programme for yoghurt pouches with help from TerraCycle. New Zealanders can now collect yoghurt pouches and send them cost-free to where they will be upcycled into children’s pencil cases or recycled into products such as chairs and park benches.
The Fonterra Pouch Brigade scheme is said to have resolved a potential waste issue that was flagged up prior to launching Anchor Uno yoghurt in a pouch format aimed at children when pouches were categorized as ‘unrecyclable.’ “We have partnered with Terracycle to provide a recycling solution for all yoghurt pouches – that’s Anchor Uno pouches or any other yoghurt pouch,” said Fonterra environmental manager, Nic Bishop.
The efforts of pouch collectors benefit local community groups, schools and charities says Terra Cycle New Zealand general manager, Anna Minns. Used pouches accumulate points that can be turned into cash. TerraCycle and FBNZ together provided the resources needed to collect, ship and recycle, including DIY collection bins, posters and signage. Minns added, “We’re now in 21 countries around the world and our aim is to eliminate the idea of waste which is why we’re proud to be working with such a large company like FBNZ to support their sustainability initiatives.”
Canadian answer to global coffee pod blight
The invention of what is claimed to be ‘the world’s first 100% compostable, fully certified single-serve beverage pod’ has been a joint effort between a Canadian coffee roaster and an international team at the University of Guelph, Ontario. Expected to enter the market in autumn 2015,thePürPod100 pod is described by Club Coffee as ‘the most viable solution’ to an environmental issue created by the use of single-serve pods based on existing technology.
“As a large manufacturer and distributor of packaged coffee, we have a responsibility to our customers, and to society, to reduce the environmental impact of our activities,” said John Pigott, CEO, Club Coffee. “The amount of used single-serve pods sent to landfills last year could have circled the earth 11 times. That’s not acceptable.”
The new pod is made from renewable, bio-based materials and the ring of the pod is made using coffee chaff, the skin of the coffee bean that comes off during the roasting process. A rigorous testing process to meet US and international standards and certifications required by municipal and commercial compost manufacturers is expected to be completed by BPI ‘in the coming months.’
Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA has stated that along with Club Coffee in Canada, it will become the only US manufacturer capable of producing the pods for its brands and partners. The pod will initially be available from Kauai Coffee, Chock full o’Nuts, Hills Bros. Coffee, Copper Moon, Boyd’s Coffee and Paramount Coffee.
Cellulose film proves irresistible for German chocolatier
A German fine chocolate producer is relying on a transparent cellulose film by UK based Innovia to keep bars of dairy-free chocolate in prime condition. iChoc-branded vegan chocolate by Vivani (part of EcoFinia) is wrapped using Nature Flex NK. The wood-pulp based material has been developed to give barrier protection against mineral oil, aroma and water vapour. “It also offers good machinability for packing,” says Joachim Janz, Innovia Films sales account manager. “Customers now have the option of using a compostable non-metallized packaging film to keep their products in premium condition,” he added. Packaging from renewable resources along with organic ingredients and fair wages forthe supplier are ‘intrinsically linked’ to the brand proposition says Andreas Meyer, managing director of Vivani iChoc.
British-made ovenable tray is a ‘natural’ choice
In the UK, a food packaging producer has developed an ovenable tray for ready meals made from natural materials and claims advantages such as faster cooking speeds, ability to withstand high temperatures, improved rigidity and insulation, which will make it attractive to end users in the catering sector and home consumers. KCC, of South ampton, makes Rijitrays from waste byproducts of bamboo, wheat, sugarcane and other natural materials. As a result they are easy to dispose of in home composting and able to be processed by anaerobic digestion to help produce renewable energy for electricity and heat, with the residueusable as a nutrient rich bio-fertilizer.
The product according to KCC has been proved to perform ‘excellently’ at hightemperatures of up to 300 degrees and recommendable for operations requiring fast cooking times. And an ability to stay rigid after cooking makes it a safe and user friendly option for busy restaurants, also for consumers and ‘particularly those who are older, or who have a disability.’
Good insulation qualities make it cooler to the touch and more comfortable to handle, and helps food stay hot for longer by comparison with alternative tray materials states KCC. The trays can be film-sealed using standard film lid-sealing machinery and when compostable film is specified the whole pack becomes totally compostable.
waste byproducts by KCC in the UK
Packaging South Asia came across the Riji tray at a food packaging show in London earlier this year and recently asked KCC’s managing director Kevin Clarke about its market prospects. He said, “The continued interest in our new Riji high temperature food trays has been exceptional. It certainly proves the general interest in finding a new way to present ready meals, consumers are asking for less plastic and more natural materials time aftertime.”
He said KCC is in talks with arguably the UK’s largest specialist food packaging distributor to the independent trade serving delis, farm shops, ready meal producers and butchers. Clarke quotes Scobie & Junor managing director, Gordon Wicklow, as saying, “The market is crying out for something new, different and can do more than existing materials, and we are ready to give it a go.”
Terry Robins, KCC technical director and former Sainsburys technical manager for packaging, adds, “KC Chasmade great strides forward in solving the challenges facing taking natural materials like sugarcane, straw and bamboo and making them work in the ready meal area.”
