Organic food company Abel & Cole can now deliver fresh herbs in sustainable packaging thanks to a tie-up between its herb supplier and a compostable bag manufacturer.
Turf Croft Herbs, supplied by Abel & Cole, are now packaged in TIPA’s compostable zipper bags, replacing 60,000 bags of herbs from its extras range with a fully certified sustainable alternative.
Abel & Cole said it connected Turf Croft Herbs with TIPA to give the grower a compostable packaging alternative that keeps its products fresh.
“Since the business started over 30 years ago, we’ve always tried to keep our packaging innovative and considered, looking at its sourcing, performance and ease of disposal by our customers, but finding a suitable packaging solution for loose produce such as our herbs has until now proven challenging,” Stef Sahmel, head of sustainability at Abel & Cole, said.
“With TIPA, however, we’ve found something robust and moisture-retentive, keeping our herbs in fantastic condition and reducing food waste, with a material that our customers can compost at home.”
TIPA’s technology performs like a conventional plastic but decomposes back into the soil with no toxic residue, microplastics or other pollutants, Abel & Cole said. Its packaging solutions seamlessly fit with industry machinery and manufacturing practices.
Anne Rees, fruit & veg buyer for Abel & Cole, added: “As a business with a strong sense of responsibility towards the environment, we work hard to minimise packaging in our range, either by sending items loose at certain times of the year, or choosing varieties with a better shelf-life.
'Food waste however is an issue we take as seriously as plastic pollution, and without something to help keep their integrity many of our products would perish too quickly for our customers to enjoy. Using TIPA’s compostable packaging has finally enabled us to move away from conventional plastics for our fresh herbs, and our customers are still able to make the most of our farmers’ delicious produce.”
Abel & Cole is an online food delivery service supplying homes across Britain with organic produce.
Founded in 1988, Abel & Cole said it has a low-plastic approach to packaging and aims to use sustainable practices to supply its produce to homes across the UK.
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