Sustainability
Providing sustainable food packaging solutions is at the heart of our business. Our packaging serves to preserve and protect the food within it, and we strive to balance this functionality with sustainability.
Alongside our wealth of experience in the design and manufacture of paperboard packaging, we have a respected voice across the packaging industry. We use this to advocate for our sector and to help customers to create packaging that supports the circular economy.
Partner in Developing Sustainable Food Packaging
There are many opportunities to reduce the impact of packaging across the food industry, but implementing sustainable solutions is complex. We help our customers to interpret policy and develop packaging that drives circularity across the packaging supply chain, whilst meeting the needs of the food they are selling.
Creating sustainable food packaging requires a deep, technical understanding of many areas, such as material functionality and performance, packaging design, material and operational compliance, policy and regulation implications, and wider packaging industry insight. We are established within industry, government bodies and working groups, which enables us to be a full-service packaging partner.
Whether you are looking for high-level insight into sustainability legislation, an understanding of recyclability in practice, or support in understanding your obligations to meet Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR), our team is well placed to support you with practical guidance in relation to your specific market.
Operational Sustainability
Sustainability is embedded in all areas of our business, and we are passionate about operating in a way that reduces our impact on the environment. This includes championing eco-design, resource efficient manufacturing, rigorous compliance standards, and responsible business practices.
We continuously improve our operational sustainability through specific initiatives such as our:
- Leading net-zero programme
- 100% renewable electricity usage
- ISO 14001 environmental management system
- Supply chain transparency and traceability
- Continuously improving operational efficiency
- Supporting local nature
Sustainability of Packaging
Packaging in the first instance serves to preserve and protect the food within it, but packaging can also be developed in support of circularity. We use materials derived from renewable resources, create recyclable solutions to suit waste management systems worldwide, and reduce resource use through lightweighting and considered design. This all supports initiatives such as packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) and helps to facilitate the growth of a circular packaging industry.
We look at several key elements in our product development process to improve packaging sustainability:
- Considered design
- Sustainable sourcing
- Reducing food waste
- Reducing impact
Sustainability at Colpac
Recycling Our Products
Ensuring the recyclability of our sustainable food packaging is important for several reasons. Recycling prolongs the life of raw materials, saves energy and reduces carbon emissions by lessening the need for raw materials, reduces waste to landfill, and extends the value of a product.
Our team works closely with organisations such as OPRL to design for recyclability in support of Simpler Recycling legislation, pEPR and the Recyclability Assessment Methodology. Doing so helps our customers to reduce their impact on the environment and their pEPR fees.
We also help to educate customers in the responsible disposal of our packaging by printing standardised recycling instructions on our products.
Composting Our Products
Compostable packaging offers a regenerative approach to packaging waste, playing a role in the circularity of food and packaging disposal. As with other solutions, compostable packaging depends on efficient waste management and well-structured composting systems to deliver its full benefits.
We collaborate with customers to create and supply packaging designed to function effectively within closed-loop composting systems. Numerous products across our packaging ranges are made from materials that are certified as commercially compostable under the EN 13432 standard.
Recycling & Composting FAQs
As part of the PackUK Interim Steering Group, we are well placed to support our customers in interpreting their packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) obligations. We can help to guide you through your responsibilities and support your compliance, please contact us for additional information.
Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) is a new packaging reform in the UK that seeks to reduce the environmental impact of packaging and increase recycling rates.
It aims to do this by incentivising producers to only place recyclable packaging materials on the market. It assigns 100% of the financial responsibility to one producer in the supply chain. Organisations are classified under pEPR depending on the activity they perform in the supply chain, their turnover, and the amount of packaging they place on the market.
Our reference to ‘compostable materials’ means that the materials utilised to make the relevant product are certified to the EN 13432 standard and are suitable for composting in industrial composting facilities.
Find out more on our compostable food packaging page.
We are ready and able to help you with any queries on the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) and packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR). We are able to provide RAM assessments for all the products we sell and can help you to understand the details of the material categories.
The Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) is a framework under the UK packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) legislation that assesses the recyclability of packaging materials. It assesses material composition against the following criteria:
- Collection
- Sortation
- Application
- Reprocessing
In addition, it assigns a further red, amber, or green (RAG) sub-category to each product.
- Red: difficult to recycle at scale
- Amber: some challenges during collection and sortation, requires specialist infrastructure for reprocesses, or other issues
- Green: widely recyclable in current infrastructure
