Composting & Waste Streams

Closing the
Loop

It’s a confusing time in the world of compostables. There are varying rules about ‘what can go where’, and what packaging can be accepted at varying composting plants across the country. Like all other waste streams in New Zealand, compostable packaging can be problematic when disposed of in the incorrect way. It doesn’t belong in your general waste, and it shouldn’t go in your recycling bin. The best option is a commercial composting facility. ‘But where should I put your compostable packaging if there isn’t a collection bin or a commercial compost facility nearby?’ We hear you – So we’ve taken the complication out of where your compostable packaging goes. We created ‘Closing the Loop’, which consists of two solutions which work in conjunction with each other to encourage the collection and disposal of compostable packaging correctly. ‘So what is ‘Closing The Loop’, and what are these two solutions? The first, is a collection, something we call ‘The Full Package’. Since it’s launch in 2018 - we’ve supplied The Full Package collection bins to over 200 customers in Auckland alone, and now have bins available across the whole country. Our customers and partners put the bins out front – Encouraging a discussion around compostable packaging and providing consumers with an option to return packaging to participating locations. This is great for sites which have a compost collection company available to them. We also needed another solution for customers who use our packaging and don’t have this collection option in their region. This is where our second solution comes into play – a returns scheme for used compostable packaging. Once this waste is collected through our Full Package Bins, it can be bagged, packaged up, and sent right back to us. We’ll take care of the rest – ensuring it ends up in a commercial compost facility. And with that, we are Closing the Loop.

Carbon Zero

We are proud to be a Toitū carbonzeroCertTM certified organisation. This means we have completed three key steps. Through data analysis and helpful online tools, we measured the emissions from our organisation's activities - this includes everything from shipping our orders, to driving our delivery vans, even our flights to the UK so we could set up Decent Packaging. We then set targets to reduce our total emissions, along with our emissions per carton sold. We are a growing company, so proportional emissions are important, but we are shooting for a total reduction year-on-year, because if not now, when?... and if not us, who? For the third step, Toitū Envirocare help us offset all of our unavoidable emissions through buying carbon credits in New Zealand and Asia - supporting forest growing projects and solar panel programs which are certified to capture carbon and therefore bring our net emissions down to zero!

We have to get food waste out of landfill

Food waste and compostable packaging can integrate, working together to break down quickly, efficiently, and provide healthy compost as an end product. One of the issues with current waste management is that most food waste still ends up in landfill. Unfortunately, organic material in landfill cannot break down properly because there is no oxygen or light, slow decomposition that can occur in landfill will release methane, which is a major contributor to climate change. Landfill is a double edged sword, it’s a waste of reusable organic molecules, and it delivers toxic environmental outcomes. We are committed as a company to helping the industry divert compostable material into compost facilities nationwide. Closing the Loop proves that a solution is possible, and it’s relatively simple. Our dream is a curbside collection throughout the country, and of course for all of our products to complete the circular economy model; plants, products, compost, repeat.