Here are Anna’s thoughts on current key priorities in the catering supplies categories.
“With the focus on single use plastics and disposable cups driven by programmes such as Blue Planet with David Attenborough and Hugh’s War on Waste with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bidfood’s customers are looking to us to help them make informed decisions about their disposable food to go packaging. Being active members of the FPA brings Bidfood closer to the issues and helps enable us to support our customers with direction and advice.
It started with our customers removing plastic straws from their businesses and now we see that our customers are asking increasingly informed questions when considering alternatives for their current packaging. We are working with our customers to help them reduce their packaging, make changes within their business to recycle more and offer reusable options where possible.
Some of questions we regularly ask our customers are:
- Are you separating your waste to allow the waste providers more opportunity to recycle?
- Are you clearly marking bins to make it easy for your staff and your customers to know where to put their waste?
Litter is an unintended consequence of a lack of responsibility over waste, and our guest speakers at the FPA Environmental Conference over the last couple of years have included the MP for Suffolk Coast and DEFRA – Therese Coffey and Jeremy Paxman, both key figures keen to support the fight to combat litter.
Furthermore, the government is considering legislation and taxation to regulate packaging in the UK, they have recently undergone 4 consultations where everyone was invited to make comment. The government continues to promote self-regulation, for example when the potential for a “Latte Levy” was proposed, however, the government decided to postpone a decision as the industry is making great strides in improving recycling, such as taking your used cups to your favourite coffee shop and thereby making a move towards reusable cups. Bidfood are proud that we recently attended a meeting with HM Treasury to help them understand the Foodservice Supply Chain better and will continue to work with government when required to make sure we build on this current momentum and make progress towards a more sustainable supply chain for us all.”
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