Organic produce firm cuts impact on planet with returnable packs and informed choices

If consumers are increasingly aware of the packaging around their food, those who buy organic, and choose to bypass the major retailers, are more firmly on the environmental bandwagon.

Riverford Organic Vegetables, which delivers organic vegetables and fresh produce to 80,000 customers, is aware of “a mis-match between perception and reality” among its customers. “We cannot rely on consumer pressure to drive positive change,” the company’s website states candidly.

Mark Howard is responsible for energy and sustainability at the Devon-based company. He admits: “In some cases there’s a lack of consumer knowledge about the energy balance involved.”

A case in point is the relative carbon footprint of paper-based and plastic packaging. Plastic bags may have become the whipping boy of the environmental lobby, but Howard takes a more measured approach. “You need protection for products that are susceptible to water-loss and wilting,” he explains. “The Exeter team looked at plastics and paper for bags. And, in fact, even where you use recycled fibre, paper tends to have a larger footprint, with more energy embedded in the product.”

For the past six months or so, the sustainability case for plastics has been strengthened by a take-back option for any PE bags supplied. They are baled up and shipped back to the supplier for recycling.

Practical punnets
When it comes to punnets for mushrooms, tomatoes and soft fruit, however, Riverford has come down in favour of a moulded fibre base and lid. In this case, says Howard, the fact that consumers can reuse the container (for growing their own plants, for instance), as well as recycle it, swung the balance in favour of fibre. Plastics would, however, be lighter, he admits.

By reducing the weight of its punnets and assuming a modest 10% return rate of its plastic bags, Riverford expects to cut CO2 emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 13 cars off the road each year.

Howard originally led an Exeter University team working with Riverford, as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, investigating issues such as carbon footprints and food miles. Since the two-year project ended late last year, he has been working full-time for Riverford. Among other nuggets, the project revealed that 17% of the company’s carbon footprint could be attributed to packaging.

“This was more than we anticipated,” says Howard. “But if reflects the fact that we’re selling an unprocessed product.”
Nearly 60% of the carbon footprint of all Riverford’s manufactured packaging materials is down to the all-important delivery box.

“Our boxes are polyethylene (PE)-coated recycled board, and they fold flat,” says Howard. “Most customers with a regular order leave the previous box out for collection. Those flat-packed boxes are back-hauled on the return trip. We aim to get five trips out of each box.”

Howard explains some boxes disappear from the system – either thrown away by customers or kept and used for storage. Otherwise, Riverford is able to send them for recycling at the end of their useful life. It is also working with suppliers to see how that life could be extended.

The coated board option is a middle ground between the single-trip corrugated favoured by some of its competitors and the rigid plastic box or crate found in many retail supply chains. So why not take it further and opt for a more durable crate?

“I did quite a lot of work on this,” says Howard. “It would simply be very capital-intensive. And you might need a deposit system with customers, because they would be more appealing to hang on to.” There would also be space problems for storage at Riverford, he says.

The bigger picture
Riverford has researched the environmental impact of its packaging more deeply than most. So what are the lessons?

“Life-cycle analysis is a useful tool, but it shouldn’t be the ultimate decision-maker,” says Howard. “You have to be qualitative, as well as putting numbers to things.”

Oxo-degradable packaging, where an additive is combined with a standard plastic polymer to trigger fragmentation under given conditions, is one example. Riverford originally bought into one supplier’s sales pitch, and invested in oxo-degradable bags, but has since moved back to standard PE bags.

“These materials undermine the potential market for recycled conventional plastics, and absorb the same – if not more – energy,” Howard argues.

He makes a similar point about compostable packaging, given the almost complete lack of any infrastructure to deal with it. There is also the risk that land will be used to produce the raw materials for biopolymers rather than food, he says.
If making the right packaging choices is essential, so too is involving customers in those choices. Alongside good crops, Riverford is cultivating good customers. Combining consumer engagement with consumer education is a vital part of that growing process.

It is no accident that the ‘How green are we?’ tab on the Riverford Organic Vegetables website is particularly prominent. Nor that, clicking through, plenty of space is devoted to its packaging and the decisions it has made about that packaging.

RIVERFORD FACTFILE
Annual turnover 2007/8 £33m
Previous year £27m
Number of farms 5
Number of staff 302
Deliveries per week 47,000
Number of customers 80,000

Popular Articles