Parkside equips Riverford veg delivery service with compostable tomato packs for plastic cuts
25 May 2021 --- UK-based Parkside is furthering its environmentally responsible fruit and veg packaging portfolio by adding a fully compostable tomato box solution.
The tomato packs are created for organic veg delivery company Riverford, which delivers 80,000 veg boxes each week across Great Britain to customers who “share the company’s environmental and ethical ethos.”
Riverford claims it currently uses 82 percent less plastic in its food packaging when compared to mainstream supermarkets.
The switch to a home compostable solution is part of Riverford’s wider packaging pledge to remove, reduce and finally switch to entirely home compostable materials.
As lockdown measures have presented new challenges to consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic, home delivery services such as Riverford’s have experienced surging popularity.
Innova Market Insights pegged “Home Delivery Haven” as its top trend for 2021, noting that 35 percent of global consumers have increased their home food delivery use since the virus outbreak.
Compostable delivery packs
All of Riverford’s fruit and veg packaging material is now either paper or home compostable, but most of its produce already comes loose.
Last year the company also launched a zero packaging veg box to help shoppers avoid packaging altogether.
Riverford’s home delivery veg boxes reportedly use 82% less plastic on average than supermarket alternatives.
“We previously collaborated with Parkside in 2020 to move all our fruit and vegetable packaging to paper or home compostable, where packaging is needed,” explains Chloe Avery, NPD & project manager at Riverford.
“After great success, we have now introduced a new range of organic tomatoes, and Parkside has enabled us to stick to our sustainability commitments with an innovative compostable solution.”
Away with conventional plastic trays
The Parkside tomato pack incorporates a fully home compostable duplex laminate for top sealing to paper pulp trays, providing an organically recyclable alternative to plastic trays and lidding for Riverford’s organic tomatoes.
The design falls under the Parkside Park2Nature portfolio, a sustainable, TUV accredited range of compostable flexible packaging laminates made from renewable resources, such as ethically sourced plant fibers.
Park2Nature enables robust product protection through the food supply chain, providing enhanced shelf life through high barrier performance while meeting strict food hygiene standards.
“As a company, we continually strive to make valued and informed choices when it comes to our products and the environment. This commitment is now reflected across our product range following the implementation of the packaging created by Parkside,” asserts Avery.
Compostable complications
Compostable packaging is growing in popularity, with NPD increasingly turning to compostable materials for improved environmental impacts.
This year, US-based World Centric released a collection of certified compostable molded fiber single-use cutlery and serving utensils in the North American market.
Last year, BillerudKorsnäs released a home-compostable paper laminate for flexible packaging in partnership with German multinational chemical group BASF. The material has many food applications and boasts adjustable barrier properties.
However, a 2019 UK study found many materials labeled as “compostable” are only fit for industrial composting, which can result in pollution as throwaway bags end up undegraded in the natural environment.
Researchers found that some materials marked as “biodegradable” were still present in a marine environment 27 months after being discarded, evidencing the need for stricter labeling standards.
Edited
By Louis Gore-Langton
