Big Ben 6 pack pie trays are now recyclable Background Big Ben 6 Pack pies are a popular product in many Kiwi households. On average Kiwis consume over 1.2m1 Big Ben 6 Packs per year. Until recently, Big Ben’s 6 Pack red tray were made from High Impact Polystyrene ‘HIPs’, which is not recyclable in New Zealand. This meant that over 35 tonnes2 of plastic was sent to landfill every year. Big Ben is committed to keeping New Zealand the way we like it and reducing its impact on the environment so from the 13th of June 2022 Big Ben pie trays switched from HIPs to PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate). PET is a class 1 plastic, [...]

Breathing new life into unsold bakery products Background Every week George Weston Foods Baking NZ bakes and distributes over 1.4m1 products to supermarkets, dairies and foodservice retailers around New Zealand. Each of our products only have a couple of days to sell. If the product is not sold within this time, it is pulled back off the shelf. This is done so Kiwis can enjoy the freshest baked products available. When a product is not sold and pulled off the shelf the question remains of where does it go? Instead of allowing the unsold baked goods to go to landfill in plastic packaging. GWF Baking NZ brings back these products to it's [...]

Servicing our customers more sustainably Background As a leading bakery business, we have a national full-time team of territory sales managers that call on our customers on a daily basis. Every year our territory sales managers consume 25,5001 litres of petrol and cover an estimated 345,600km2 per year. This is a significant distance and covering it generates roughly 50.13 tonnes of CO2 emissions. What we're doing Since developing our sustainability program, we've been on a journey to adopt a continuous improvement sustainability model. As our territory manager fleet turns over 5-10 cars each year. It was determined that the best way to make a sustainable next step and not waste existing [...]

George Weston Foods starts eliminating plastic tags on bread bags Auckland, 13 August 2021 – Starting today, George Weston Foods (GWF) will replace plastic bread bag tags with fully recyclable cardboard ones on Ploughmans Bakery and Bürgen bread. The new tags will be used to seal all Ploughmans and Bürgen loaves throughout New Zealand, seven days a week. The rollout follows a series of successful trials, which have given George Weston Foods confidence that the new tags are effective in sealing in freshness and taste, and that a complete transition from plastic can be undertaken without compromising quality. This is the first step in the company’s plastic tag elimination programme, which will eliminate 7 [...]