Sustainability at Higgidy in 2019
This week a team from Higgidy visited our local recycling plant – Ford Materials Recycling Facility, operated by Viridor on the behalf of West Sussex County Council. As sustainability is high up on our list of priorities this year, we’re keen to develop our understanding of how the whole recycling process works and how we can play our part in helping ourselves and others to recycle more efficiently.
A topical issue across the UK, the Government has set a target that by 2020, the UK will must recycle at a rate of at least 50%. West Sussex (Ford MRF) is already recycling at 51.3% which is a great leap above what is currently expected, helping to improve sustainability in the area. In West Sussex they accept paper & card, foil, glass bottles and jars, metal cans and aerosols, cartons, plastic bottles and containers. So, there’s really no excuse for us to not be recycling most of our waste.
However, currently, different counties have varying rules and regulations on what can be recycled, which can cause confusion. This is because each recycling facility has different capabilities that impact on what materials can and cannot be collected. We are often made aware of this disparity in the comments we receive from you, our consumers, on our own packaging.
Fortunately, our local facility accepts a whole host of different materials and we were pleased to find out that here, all Higgidy packaging can be placed in the recycling bin. From the cardboard box, to the acetate window, right down to our plastic tray. This is great news for any Higgidy eaters in West Sussex and we hope that in the future, other counties will follow suit. But for now, we know that we need to continue exploring different material options so that our packaging can be recycled more easily throughout the whole of the UK.
This year we have already been focusing on using alternative materials within our packaging. We are currently trialling an alternative to our plastic trays in our Parcels (in the form of paper cases) and we will be trialling cardboard trays in our Spinach & Feta Spanakopita twin-pack rolls from next month.
Trialling these different options allows us to evaluate their success and, if they work well, the next step would be to roll out alternatives across our whole range.
If you would like to read more information about recycling in West Sussex, please visit: http://www.recycleforwestsussex.org/ford-mrf/. There is a whole host of useful information to help you to recycle more efficiently.
We will also keep you updated on our progress in our plans to become more sustainable on our website: https://www.higgidy.co.uk/doing-our-bit
