Farming enterprise plan to ditch black plastic in 2019

Farming enterprise plan to ditch black plastic in 2019

Family owned farming company Mash direct are getting rid of black plastic by St. Patricks’ Day 2019.

The independent farming enterprise have taken on a New Year’s resolution to crack down on use of plastic in order to move forward into 2019 with a fresh green start.

Many people at this time of year will be looking to their greens for a fresh and healthy start to 2019.  On the farm at Mash Direct, there are plenty of vegetables all year round and so commitment to going green is crucial. They plan to remove all black packaging by St. Patrick’s Day in March.  This will remove over 240 tonnes of black packaging from the food system every year.

In addition to this, they are also extending their commitment to keeping all of their range palm oil free.

A spokesperson for the company said: “In 2018, we achieved our goal of eradicating palm oil from our products in light of the issues surrounding deforestation.  We reformulated the recipe of our Chilli Baby Bakes to remove palm oil and continue to enforce this rule across our new product development.  In 2019 we are aiming to remove all black plastic from our packaging by April, years ahead of the targets set by many major supermarkets.

Being the farm and the kitchen we are in a unique position as we have direct control over our entire range from farm to fork creating one of the most vertically integrated supply chains in the ready meal sector.”

Their pledge is to move all vegetable side dishes to environmentally friendly trays which can be fully recycled as opposed to the previously used black trays. These cannot be sorted by the optical sorting systems used in plastics recycling and as a result, black plastic packaging commonly ends up as residue and is disposed of in landfill. By moving to fully recyclable trays they are improving their environmental footprint as well as contributing to the long-term health and prosperity of the Food and Drink Sector.

Chief Operating Officer at Mash Direct, Jack Hamilton said, “With a new year, what a better time to start thinking about the healthier option for the planet.”