As more businesses seek to reduce their consumption of single-use plastic in order to meet government legislated targets and consumer demand, a new generation of fibre-based alternatives are being developed to replace plastics. In 2020, BioPak were approached by Woolworths and Costa to develop a sweet berry truss tomato pack made from sugarcane pulp. The pack uses 90 per cent less plastic than a conventional punnet and combines BioPak’s home-compostable sugarcane tray with a printed lidding film.
Our Partner
Costa is Australia's leading grower, packer and marketer of premium quality fresh fruit and vegetables.
According to the Costa Group’s 2020 Sustainability Report, they are committed “to implementing the agreement by Australian state and federal Environment Ministers in April 2018 that 100 per cent of Australian packaging be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025 or earlier to cut down on the amount of waste produced.”
The Problem
Each year, Australia’s farmers produce 3.4 million tonnes of vegetables (source) and most of this produce ends up in Australian households, often in polystyrene (PS) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) produce trays.
By switching from conventional plastics made from oil to our sugarcane trays made from a rapidly-renewable raw material that is a waste-product of the sugar refining industry, one farm alone could avoid 545 tonnes of plastic being made and by composting it, a further 627 tonnes of carbon could be avoided, turning the farm into a climate positive business (giving back more than what was taken from the environment).
Single-use plastic bans are coming into effect throughout Australia and Woolworths are championing the implementation of this throughout their stores. Woolworths fully supported Costa Group's plan to develop a sustainable punnet for its tomatoes.
The Solution
Costa Group partnered with BioPak to create a pack for Woolworths’ sweet berry truss tomatoes.
The solution needed to withstand the rigours of cold storage and fit into the existing standardised crates, needed to de-nest easily and accept the top film to keep the produce undamaged and fresh. Sugarcane pulp packaging was deemed to be the right material as it is extremely durable, lightweight and biodegrades in 30-90 days once exposed to composting conditions. It is made from the pulp of the sugarcane plant, which up until recently was a by-product of sugarcane growers and was left to rot.
The Result
The resulting BioPak designed product is certified home compostable to Australian AS5810 standards allowing the user to divert organic waste from landfill. It is also industrially compostable to Australian AS4376 standards. The packaging is carbon neutral and contains 90 per cent less plastic than a traditional APET (Amorphous-Polyethylene Terephthalate) clamshell punnet.
Sugarcane pulp is suitable for heat sealing. These punnets used KM Packaging’s K Peel printed lidding film, which is needed to keep the produce fresh longer. It can be brought back to Woolworths as part of their soft-plastic recycling initiative with REDcycle and Replas.
BioPak is thrilled to see supermarkets like Woolworths supporting farmers and packers to make the switch to more sustainable packaging.
Richard Fine, founder, product developer and sustainability director at BioPak, said the project took some research and development to get the design right: “Ultimately, it is replacing a PET plastic tray with one made of moulded sugarcane pulp fibre. It’s home compostable, as well as recyclable in the paper stream,” he said.
The Difference
Switching from single-use plastic packaging derived from finite fossil resources to sugarcane packaging makes a big difference: if a producer grower chose 10 million tomato punnets made from sugarcane over conventional plastic packaging, they could avoid 280,000 kgs of fossil-fuel plastics, offset 744,155 kgs of carbon emissions and if all were composted at home, the organic waste would create 196,000 kgs of nutrient-rich soil which in return sequesters even more carbon from the atmosphere, reversing climate change.
