Young’s Foodservice is celebrating a major milestone in reducing its environmental impact and promoting sustainable business practices within the catering and hospitality industries. The company has met all its 2020 targets for packaging reduction ahead of deadline at the end of the year.
In 2018 Young’s committed to significant cuts in its use of paper packaging and reducing plastic packaging by 10%. This was part of a broader strategy to ensure that 100% of all packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
It has now achieved those targets early, successfully removing over 170 tonnes of unnecessary paper packaging and 300 tonnes of plastic packaging in the process.
In order to reduce its use of paper, Young’s launched a large-scale initiative to review the packaging of its ranges. By doing so, Young’s Foodservice was able to eliminate 170 tonnes of unnecessary paper packaging annually.
To achieve its targets on plastics, which are linked to the UK’s Plastics Pact, it undertook a review of its entire product range. In addition, Young’s was able to replace 127 tonnes of other plastics with recyclable materials.
Young’s success has been down to its focused strategy which comprises of five distinct components: Redesign, Remove, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Adrian Greaves, Foodservice Director at Young’s Foodservice said: “For professional kitchens, one of the biggest environmental factors is excess packaging. This is why it is our aim to do everything we can to reduce our foodservice packaging to make kitchens all over the country greener. We are very pleased with our progress to date, but we most go further to lead the industry. We are committed to making a difference and we are excited to make further progress in the future!”
Helen Nickells, Head of Packaging Development at Young’s said: “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.
“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.
“This is not the end of the road by any means, the results to-date are brilliant, but we must not lose site of the journey ahead.”