Worried about the environment? These food packaging choices are eco-friendly

With the nation cracking down on plastic straws and other single-use plastics, JJ Foodservice has revealed its new sustainable packaging options to cut down on the waste which we send to landfill.

Group general manager Terry Larkin said: “We want to make it easier for all customers to choose environmentally friendly options when they shop with us. Our website receives more than 20,000 visitors a week, so this is a great way to highlight the new eco-friendly options.”

JJ Food Service is an independent foodservice specialist delivering from its 11 branches, including a depot on Middleton Grove, to cafes, hotels, restaurants, schools, local authorities and more across the UK.

Its new range of natural, sustainable and renewable packaging lines includes compostable drink cups, straws and food waste liners, as well as compostable and biodegradable cutlery and packaging boxes.

The options have recently been further expanded with the addition of wooden cutlery, clear salad containers, paper soup containers, pots, plates and more.

Thanks in part to pressure from organisations like the Sustainable Restaurant Association, the takeaway and street-food sector is increasingly rethinking its packaging choices to find sustainable alternatives, while in restaurant kitchens, chefs are seeking alternatives to storage materials like cling-film, another of the main culprits within the industry.

“I can’t remember a time when there has been such a marked change on a particular issue in such a short period of time," says Giles Gibbons, the association’s director on the move to ditch single-use plastics and put the planet first.

"Society has warmed up to be much more positive about environmental activity and that is driving consumer-led change, which is the best possible form of change. Most companies are moving very quickly to capitalise on this opportunity."

JJ Food Service has reduced its carbon emissions by three per cent in recent months by cutting the amount of time its vehicles spend idling and making deliveries more efficient; solar panels also generate 13 per cent of the energy used at two of JJ’s London depots.

Making a commitment to sustainability also makes good business sense: two-thirds of consumers said they would pay more for products from brands committed to environmentally friendly practices, according to the Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability Report.

In a report last year, market research consultancy IHS Markit said that Western Europe was the largest market in the world for biodegradable plastics as restrictions clamped down initially on plastic shopping bags.

The demand for biodegradable plastics – which are mainly made from starch-based compounds – is set to reach 360,000 tonnes this year. By 2023, the total consumption of biodegradable polymers is expected to increase to 550,000 tonnes, representing an average annual growth rate of nine per cent over five years.

To view the new range of eco-friendly packaging, see JJ Food Service