Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 

 

We pride ourselves on being an environmentally aware business and are always seeking to improve our environmental controls and social contribution through continuous research and investment. 

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Our Pantry

 

HQ ie.‘The Pantry’ was created in our home town of Middlesbrough, in 2016 and purpose built to include energy reducing initiatives.

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Energy reducing initiatives

We have a heat recovery system, to utilise the heat generated from running our chiller units to heat the water on site.  We also have air source heat pumps outside that again support the heating of the water.

 

We’re currently in the process of changing lighting in the new factory to LED to match our other site (which is already fully LED) and our future plans include an onsite blast chiller unit to chill our frozen product on site instead of shipping them to a third party - and in doing so look to reduce vehicle emissions further.

 

Waste processing

As a company we use expertise from other businesses to help with our own environmental goals. This includes our packaging waste removal suppliers. All of our cardboard and empty plastic buckets are recycled.  Our food waste goes again to an approved contractor who uses 95% of this in bio mass generation.  We segregate waste in the factory into general and food waste and we recycle our card and paper throughout the business.  Our chemical drums are cleaned and returned to suppliers to reuse.

 

Carbon emissions & locally sourced produce

To support our local infrastructure and reduce delivery miles and mileage on food, we try to use locally sourced ingredients as much as possible. For example, we use a local bakery for our different types of bread buns and the business directly next door is our main supplier of fresh veg and fruit.  We have used these suppliers for many years and have built up an excellent symbiotic relationship. This means we are able to work very closely with the businesses to increase quality and reduce negative mileage on the environment.

 

We continue to operate a Modern fleet (Euro 6 engines) which run with the addition of a compound (add blue) to reduce emissions on our diesel vehicles. Vehicles are also tracked so drivers are continuously monitored which encourages a more efficient drive pattern and Vehicle distribution is calculated to make routes as efficient as possible to again reduce the emissions on deliveries.

 

Packaging

We have plans to move away from labelled products and print directly onto laminates, packs and cartons, thereby reducing an additional piece of packaging.

 

Our products are mainly distributed on reusable bread trays instead of boxes as a way of reducing the level of waste we generate and the amount of waste our customers have.

 

The board used in our sandwich boxes is recyclable at certain waste points that are able to separate the polyethylene within the processing. 

 

Due to the nature of our product the majority of our packaging is responsibly sourced, virgin board except for cardboard boxes which have an element of recycled material within them. The board is approved to FSC rating which is an industry accreditation for sustainability.

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All of our packaging is UK food grade and does not contain any prohibited substances like PVC or formaldehyde. We use low migration inks and only purchase from approved suppliers with approved specifications and migration test results.

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