Young’s Seafood has met a target to remove hundreds of tonnes of plastic and paper packaging from its branded and own-label lines by the end of 2020, the supplier has said.
The Grimsby-based firm eliminated 300 tonnes of plastic following a review of its entire product range, including 40 tonnes of black plastic from its Gastro line. Gastro products now come in a recyclable paperboard tray.
In addition, Young’s was able to replace 127 tonnes of oriented polypropylene polyethylene plastic from products such as its scampi bags with a polyethylene material that can be recycled with shopping bags at supermarkets.
It also cut out 170 tonnes of paper it would have used annually by reducing the packaging of ranges such as Simply Breaded and Chip Shop.
According to Young’s, these developments meant it had achieved its 2018 goal to cut paper and plastic packaging by 10%, including the removal of all black plastic by the end of 2020.
The supplier said 80% of its lines were now widely recyclable, meaning it is on track to meet its broader target to make all its packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
“We are hugely aware of our responsibility to bring great tasting seafood to the nation’s table in a sustainable way and reducing our use of packaging is a vital part of this,” said Young’s head of packaging development, Helen Nickells.
“The packaging reduction we have achieved to date has also allowed us to generate additional environmental benefits including taking 256 lorries of the roads and significantly reducing our carbon footprint.”
Nickells added Young’s would now aim to cut its use of functional films and would also move to get all its branded paper packaging from either Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification or Forest Stewardship Council-certified sources, a target it expects to achieve by March 2021.