Leading care homes meal provider apetito is expanding its pioneering closed-loop recycling system for meal trays into care homes across the UK.
Following successful results within its consumer business Wiltshire Farm Foods – and the NHS – ‘Project Boomerang’ will be introduced at select partnering homes, with plans to extend further across the UK later this year.
Through this scheme, the plastic meal trays used in apetito’s Specialist Nutrition range can be washed and returned after use and recycled into brand-new trays, guaranteeing that 100 per cent of trays returned will be recycled into new trays. Participation in the initiative is set to save each care home an estimated 1,13kg CO2 per year.
Lee Sheppard, director of corporate affairs, policy and sustainability at apetito, said: “To date, we have seen brilliant results and had positive receptions of this scheme from both our Wiltshire Farm Foods and Healthcare customers and have collected back an over 25 million trays to be recycled.
“Reducing environmental impacts is becoming a growing priority for all businesses, and so we’re pleased to be able to work closely with our partnering care homes to help tackle their carbon emissions and provide a more sustainable packaging option through our closed-loop recycling scheme.
“Participation also has the potential to drive cost efficiencies for care homes through reducing waste collection costs, at a time when cost inflation is a real concern for the sector.”
