Helping our parent company to win big at the waste2zero Awards

We’re celebrating after helping Compass Group UK & Ireland, our parent company and largest client, to win the Best Waste Prevention Project for food at Footprint’s waste2zero Awards.

As a leading food procurement organisation, we take the sustainability of our planet seriously. That’s why we’ve been working closely with Compass Group UK & Ireland to remove or reduce single-use plastic items over the last 12 months. And Compass’ award win is a real testament to our collective efforts.

Tackling single-use plastics
Our approach has been focussed on helping Compass to reduce, reuse and recycle single-use plastics. If this wasn’t possible, we then reviewed how we can source alternative products that meet the requirement by either:

1. Focusing on the single-use plastic products that we can remove completely by switching to other materials. Think paper straws instead of plastic straws
   
   
2. Or for products they can’t switch away from, we help them move to more recyclable versions. For instance, moving from individually wrapped milk jiggers to standard pints of milk

Collaborating with our suppliers and partners
Once we have defined the approach, we needed to brief our key suppliers and strategic partners and bring them on the journey with us. We started by working with suppliers to recommend switches to alternative products. For instance, replacing individual sauce packets with pump dispensers and switching plastic cutlery for reusable metal cutlery. By making switches like this, we are able to negotiate improved costs as a result of increased volumes, delivering cost savings for all our clients. This work is ongoing as we look to identify further opportunities.

At the cutting edge
We’re always keen to innovate, and by working closely with our suppliers we have been able to introduce a wide range of consumable products made from more sustainable materials like recycled PET pots and lids, wooden cutlery and paper straws. We’re not stopping here, we have lots more sustainable options to launch over the coming months.

Commenting on the win, Celena Fernandez, Head of Environment, Compass Group UK & Ireland said: “I am delighted our work with Foodbuy in this area has been acknowledged. We recognise the importance of taking action to address the use of single-use plastic across our business. We have decided to focus on educating both our people and clients on what steps can be taken to make a difference. It’s really important we don’t make knee jerk decisions that result in alternatives being introduced that are more damaging to the environment. We are really proud of what we have achieved so far and remain focused on working closely with Foodbuy to address this issue.”

Get in touch today
If you’re interested in learning how we can help reduce single-use plastics for your business, get in touch with a member of the team today.