Bidfood are taking a two-pronged approach to tackling plastic as a business. Firstly, they have been working hard to review their own brand packaging as part of their sustainable offering to customers. Starting with water, as of July Bidfood’s own brand water, Springbourne, will be moving to 50% recycled plastic content within every bottle. In addition, they have launched a number of new products that offer customers plastic-free choices including: Can O Water (a sustainable alternative to single use plastic bottles) and paper straws, to name a few. These choices form part of Bidfood’s plastic free range, which is made up of 150 products to allow choice to customers who are looking to move towards plastic-free alternatives. These alternative materials include paper, wood and bagasse and PLA (which are compostable materials). As part of this approach, Bidfood’s Catering Supplies team have been keen to educate customers, and their customers consumers, on how to make informed, sustainable and suitable choices and how best to dispose of packaging through a simple guide to recycling ‘Food 2 Go’ packaging. The team have worked with WRAP, key suppliers and customers within the food to go market to produce this. The leaflet explains the pros and cons of each material, how to handle the materials onsite through best practice and explains how the materials impact the environment at end of life. The document clearly indicates and identifies which materials can be recycled or composted to ensure that all packaging items are being disposed of correctly. As a longer term project, Bidfood are also working to offer an onsite food and composting machine which turns product into composting pellets to use within their customers grounds. Equally as important, the second part of our approach is internal. We have removed all disposable plastic cups and takeaway
coffee cups from our Business Support Centre in Slough and are planning to roll this out across our sites, to encourage employees and visitors to use reusable mugs and cups in a bid to eliminate unnecessary single use plastics. Our Paddock Wood depot is currently exploring alternatives to shrink wrap used within the warehouse as part of our company-wide plan to reduce plastic consumption within the workplace. Michaela Bateman, Category Manager at Bidfood said: “At Bidfood, our mission is to deliver service excellence, make lives easier and help our customers to grow. To continue to achieve this mission, we have pulled together a plastic-free range incorporating the best of both current and new products, including paper and PLA straws and a reusable Eco To Go Cup. “This range has been designed with customers in mind, to provide choice to those who are keen to move towards more sustainable products.”