We are so excited to have launched the UK’s first fully recyclable pouch that can be recycled at home through your normal household recycling. The two delicious flavours launching first are ‘Super Strawberries & Bananas’ and ‘Mighty Mango & Passionfruit’. They are suitable for babies 6m+ and are available in a multipack, using FSC certified cardboard and are printed using eco-friendly vegetable-based inks.
As part of our sustainability strategy - ‘The Big Green Plan’ - we are committed to ensuring our packaging is 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. A major step towards achieving this is our launch of the UK’s first mono material pouch designed to be fully recyclable (with the cap on), which is not only lighter to transport but also less carbon intensive to create!
After several years of testing and trialling alternative packaging materials, we are excited to finally be able to offer our parents a pouch made from one (mono) material called polypropylene. Assessed by the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) scheme to meet the requirements of their ‘Recycle’ designation, these pouches will carry a recycle label, meaning they can be accepted by kerbside recycling. This is a momentous step and provides a simple and convenient method of disposal for our parents. Over the next 12 months, we hope to save over 350,000 pouches from landfill, equivalent of 2.5 tonnes of plastic!
Being unable to offer our parents the convenience of kerbside recycling has always remained a point of concern and focus for us. This is why we initially launched our return recycling scheme with UK recycler, Enval, as the scheme provided a zero-waste option when no other ‘home-recycling’ solution was available. Our partnership with Enval will remain in place so you can continue to recycle our products not currently labelled as recyclable. You can find these recycling bags on our 'PRODUCTS' page and you can learn more about Enval and our scheme on our 'PLANET' page.
We intend to roll-out both the fully recyclable pouch and climate labels across our entire UK pouch range in the coming years. We hope to inspire other brands, not only in the baby food sector, but within the flexible packaging industry to join them in adopting recyclable pouches as well as quantifying their climate footprints.
Alice Harlock, Membership & Services Manager at OPRL says:
“We’re thrilled to see Little Freddie launch the very first baby food pouch which has gone through stringent testing to achieve our Certified As Recyclable marque. As a result, it carries our ‘Recycle - Cap On’ label which makes recycling much easier for busy parents by adding these pouches to home recycling collections and preventing them from ending up in landfill. This innovation is a fine example of brands helping their customers to do the right thing by making recycling simple.”