Bakery group Oggs links with Macpac for environmentally friendly packaging
UK-based bakery group Oggs, developer of an innovative liquid egg substitute, has confirmed an initiative for its latest product range with packaging designer and manufacturer, Macpac.
As the food business explained, it had been seeking an environmentally-friendly solution for its packaging as part of its ethical basis of trading.
Consequently, the company tasked Macpac to come up with a tray design and raw material solution to fulfil this criteria.
Among the key criteria for the project was a need to protect the products throughout the entire supply chain to the end consumer was a critical factor. Another key element was using food grade recycled PET packaging containing 100% recycled content that was 100% recyclable in the waste stream.
As the company noted, it had been aware of Macpac’s BreakdownPET and were keen to explore this ground-breaking material for their products. The system offers 100% recycled content and is fully recyclable as standard PET, but with quite distinct advantages.
Macpac developed its system recently in response to the fact,that despite being fully recyclable, at least 50% of all packaging is destined for landfill or incineration. BreakdownPET offers a technological breakthrough in packaging, a fully recyclable material offering the same characteristics as conventional PET but with one major difference.
Should the packaging end up in landfill and miss the recycling waste stream, the material breaks down to biomass within a decade, rather than centuries. Breakdown PET is a ‘ready meal’ for hungry micro-organisms that exist in landfill, breaking down the polymer chains of the material at a faster rate than conventional decomposition in landfill.
Subsequently, Macpac provided the packaging formats in Breakdown PET for a selected OGGS range comprising two cupcake, four flow-wrap, four mince pies and nine hinged cavity packs.
Hannah Carter Chief Executive Officer of Oggs, said: ‘As a business our focus has always been on creating a product that is friendly to the Planet, Animals and People and weren’t prepared to compromise on our packaging. Despite being told by several packaging companies that food grade packaging made from 100% recycled material was not achievable, Macpac took up the challenge and worked with us to achieve food trays that are not only made from 100% recyclable material but is also 100% bio-degradable in landfill’.
