Returnable, reusable, recyclable coolers
After a successful trial, our new returnable, reusable cooler boxes made from recycled cardboard have been launched to replace polystyrene coolers.
These 100% recyclable coolers made from wood pulp keep your refrigerated items cool for up to twelve hours, can hold water for five days and best of all can be resused many, many, many times.
The key to making this all work of course is giving your cooler back to your driver on your delivery day or by leaving it out with your other packaging before your next delivery.
If you’d like to know more about our new coolers, 90’s surfing legend, Rob Machado, made a short video about them – you can find it here.
To celebrate the arrival of our new coolers we’ve put a new packaging page together with everything Fair Food is doing to refuse, reduce and reuse.
Here are the highlights;
Refillable Packaging
We love packaging that’s refillable and work with our farmers and suppliers to collect and send back – we have
– Schulz – full cream milk in glass
– Dirt – laundry liquid pouches
– Dr Planet – 1L and 2.5L bottles
Ice Packs
Have you ever wondered why we use plastic water bottles as ice packs? Well, they’re long lasting, refillable, widely recyclable and when you send them back to us, almost endlessly reusable.
Eco-cellophane bags
Great for packing fresh spinach, salad and roquette these plastic-free bags are made from wood cellulose and are fully home-compostable. They are breathable, so to keep your leaves fresh transfer salad greens into a sealed container when you get them home.
CERES Bakery bags
Our very own in-park CERES Bakery is the only bread in our range that sports home-compostable and recyclable paper packaging.
Compostable Wholefood Bags
All our bulk nuts, pulses and grains are packed in Detpak reusable paper bags which are fully biodegradable and council compostable.
Packing Material
We bought a cardboard shredder to make our own recyclable perforated cardboard packaging for fragile wine, eggs and glass bottles. It’s returnable to us, recyclable and home-compostable.
Labels and Packing Slips
Our paper packing slips are recyclable and the labels are compostable, however, the plastic backing for these stickers is plastic and can’t be recycled. We’re currently sourcing new ones that are plastic-free.
Packing Tape
We’ve ditched plastic packing tape for this free paper tape if extra sturdiness is needed on our boxes or coolers.
Each one of these packaging innovations has a story and its own person at Fair Food who made it happen.
Each week a small miracle occurs when you return over sixty-five percent of our packaging to be reused – often decorated with beautiful pictures and messages.
You encourage us to find new solutions and what we come up with together makes me proud and keeps us asking the question – “Can packaging be fairer?”
Have a great week
Chris
Great job guys, keep it up! I love the Dirt ‘goon bags’ and the glass refillable pump bottles. Just brilliant. Received my first esky today, clearly a lot of research has gone into the development of these. My only qualm is the surf legend Rob Machado video should have come with a warning ‘polystyrene squeaks included’. One of the worst sounds on the planet
Speaking of the planet, thanks again for all that you do looking after our home.
Dirt goon bags Thanks for this comment, it’s so great to hear our community appreciating and embracing these exciting changes we’ve been working towards for so long – we hope to one day live in a world with no squeaky polystyrene!