Cawleys Waste Management has announced a brand new eco partnership with inspirational packaging company, Vegware.
Packaging has long been a serious concern for environmentalists and the rest of the world has slowly woken up to the damage much of today’s food packaging can cause. Vegware’s cutlery, cups, plates, food boxes and general food packaging items are truly compostable, minimising their impact on the planet.
However, for the initiative to be truly sustainable, the used Vegware items need to be transported to the correct composting facility in a completely uncontaminated state. This is where the Cawley’s partnership makes a real impact. Cawleys are now offering a comprehensive collection and transport service to all Vegware clients in the region to ensure a closed-loop approach.
Conventional disposables are notoriously hard to recycle due to their mix of plastic, card and food residues. New guidelines from waste agencies WRAP and Confederation of Paper Industries highlight that anything more than food staining is problematic for paper recycling, and that plastic should be under 3-5% of the product.
Compostable packaging provides a smart solution for this problem. Vegware is made from plants, using renewable, lower carbon or recycled materials and is designed to be commercially composted with food waste. Its range of more than 300 products includes cutlery, hot and cold cups, tableware and takeaway containers.
Cawleys collects used Vegware packaging from around Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire and take it to an approved local facility for processing. There, it breaks down into high-quality soil improver in fewer than 12 weeks.
“We’re delighted to give our joint customers the assurance that their Vegware packaging is being composted. Cawleys provides an excellent service that enables customers to close the loop,” said Annalise Matthews, Waste Management Consultant at Vegware.
Commenting further on the partnership, Anna Cawley, Customer Services Director at Cawleys, said: “We are extremely proud to be working with Vegware to ensure a closed-loop solution for the many businesses and organisations who want to do their best for the environment. Many people are unaware of the importance of segregating Vegware. It’s a fantastic product but it can only fulfil its true potential if it reaches the composting facility in a completely uncontaminated state. We fulfil this important stage in the cycle by collecting, checking and transporting Vegware materials so that they can be treated in the right way.” –
UK soils are suffering a fertility crisis, and Michael Gove has warned that British farms are 30 to 40 years away from, “the fundamental eradication of soil fertility”. Compost returns nutrients to the soil, and has the added benefit of improving soil structure, reducing the risk of floods.
