Do Your Favourite Foods Have Recyclable Packaging?

Let’s stop asking ‘is it plastic?’; Ask instead, ‘can I recycle it?’


As global consumption continues to rise, recycling and reusing resources becomes ever more important to ensuring a sustainable planet. While our previous blog post talked about the importance sustainably-grown foods, in this post we look at the importance of the packaging our food comes in.

The recycling crisis

Plastic is the most significant contributor to packaging pollution worldwide, and its production is on the increase. In 1950, the world produced only 2 million tonnes per year. Since then, annual production has increased nearly 200-fold, reaching 381 million tonnes in 2015.   

While initiatives to ‘ban the bag’ and reduce our plastic use are important, plastic does have a role to play in food packaging. Plastic is a unique material with many benefits: it’s versatile, lightweight, has a long shelf life, and can withstand a range of temperatures. It also plays a critical role in maintaining food quality, safety and preventing waste. The trade-offs between plastics and substitutes are therefore complex.

What is clear, however, is that not all plastics are created equal. Some are recyclable, while others aren’t. As ethical consumers, it’s important that the plastics we buy are recyclable. This can easily be identified by the universal recycling symbol.

Of the 5.8 billion tonnes of primary plastic no longer in use, only 9 percent has been recycled since 1950. Even in developed countries with advanced recycling industries, as little as one-third of plastic food packaging is recycled. 

How Ra Contributes to a Sustainable Future with Recycled Packaging

At Ra, we understand that sustainability is about more than just the food itself, and involves the entire product – package and all. That’s why we’ve gone the extra mile to ensure our packaging is 100% recyclable. We want to increase the ‘green’ share of plastics that are being recycled in the system.

What’s more, our packaging is not only recyclable, but also reusable. Our rigid tub packages are useful to reuse as containers for leftovers, as a lunchbox or for any of your storage needs. This ensures that customers can get the most use out of our products before they are ultimately recycled.

To find out more about how Ra Food’s products contribute to protecting the environment and ensure a sustainable future, check out the link below.



References

Hall, D. (2017). Throwaway culture has spread packaging waste worldwide | Waste packaging. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/13/waste-plastic-food-packaging-recycling-throwaway-culture-dave-hall

Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2018). Plastic Pollution. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].