UK companies partner on new strawberry punnets forecast to save over 150 tonnes of plastic annually

Angus Soft Fruits, Waddington Europe and Produce Packaging work together to launch new easy-to-recycle punnets that use less plastic.

Three leading fruit supply-chain companies, Angus Soft Fruits, Waddington® Europe and Produce Packaging, have partnered to launch a range of innovative new strawberry punnets in the UK and Ireland in sizes up to 1kg that use less plastic and are fully recyclable.  

Angus Soft Fruits, a leading supplier of berries to UK, European & Asian retailers, is packing its strawberries in a range of punnets made with MONOAIR® cushion technology manufactured by Waddington Europe. Traditional soft fruit punnets use a layer of bubble padding secured with an adhesive to prevent fruit from bruising. But if consumers do not remove the padding and adhesive, the punnets cannot be recycled and must be sent to landfill or incinerated. The MONOAIR punnets integrate cushioning made of the same material as the rigid body of the container, can be manufactured with up to 100% recycled PET (rPET), and are fully recyclable back into food-grade rPET. Elimination of the bubble layer and lighter weight design also require less plastic. 

“MONOAIR provides a winning packaging solution for supermarkets in the UK and Ireland that have committed to making their plastic packaging 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025,”  said Eduardo Gomes, Managing Director of Waddington Europe. “We are proud to be pioneers in the packaging industry and look forward to introducing more groundbreaking products to benefit our customers and our communities.”

Packaging provides an essential role bringing fresh produce from farm to table. The Team at Angus Soft Fruits is committed to enriching the environment, ensuring farming and packing operations both respect and protect their local ecosystems. Customers and consumers, as well, want to reduce the impact of packaging on the environment.

“If it can’t be reduced, reused, recycled or composted, Angus Soft Fruits will look to re-design, remove or restrict that packaging in our supply chain, without compromising our product quality,” said Radoslav Marinov, Senior Supply Chain Coordinator at Angus Soft Fruits.  “We were delighted to be involved with this collaborative and innovative development of a punnet using MONOAIR cushion technology which has helped to reduce the volume of plastic in the supply chain, is much lighter, made it easier for consumers to recycle, and has improved efficiencies for the grower.”

Produce Packaging, the UK’s leading supplier of packaging materials designed for the fresh-food industry, is supplying the new MONOAIR punnet range to Angus Soft Fruits. Produce Packaging focusses on reducing the environmental impact of packaging with innovative products that are recyclable or compostable. Because of its special partnership with Waddington Europe, Produce Packaging is the only distributor with access to the full range of MONOAIR punnets, ensuring its customers have the exact type of product they need.  
 
“For many years Produce Packaging have focused on building a portfolio of high-quality products that aim to reduce our customers and consumers impact on our wider environment” said Mark Tierney, Managing Director of Produce Packaging. “MONOAIR is an excellent addition that reduces weight and materials, whilst simplifying the consumers burden when recycling. Our nationwide depot network and distribution capabilities also serve to provide stock, when and where it is needed, to our customers. Having built our depot in Scotland 10 years ago for that very purpose, it is fantastic to be working with Angus Soft Fruit and Waddington Europe, delivering innovation for the soft fruit industry” 
 
For more information about the MONOAIR punnets, please contact either info@producepackaging.co.uk or info@waddingtoneurope.com.