Pack it up, pack it in
Let me begin by saying that if I had it my way, we'd do away with packaging all together. But food needs protecting. So we invest a lot into reusing, recycling and reducing what we do use - seriously considering all the options, weighing up every last pro and con.
Bags
In the Summer our growers send us more delicate fruit and veg which needs protecting. Cardboard absorbs moisture, so we pop things with a high water content - like cucumbers, lettuce, celery and spinach – in bags. This creates a microclimate so they remain crisp and crunchy until they get to your fridge.
Potatoes go in paper bags to protect other things from them, and keep any soil tidied away. You can pop the pots straight in the cupboard as the dark environs of the paper bag make them last longer too.
Punnets
Delicate things like cherry tomatoes and nectarines need the protection of a punnet, otherwise they bury down to the bottom of your box, and get bashed about by the bigger kids. Reuse punnets to grow salad leaves in, or recycle. If you can't recycle them we'll happily collect and recycle them for you.
Compostable vs plastic
We trialled compostable corn starch bags and punnets, but found the science isn't quite there yet. Things started biodegrading in our warehouse, and they cause problems if they get into the recycling system too – for similar reasons.
A big change
We've scrapped our old polystyrene chill boxes, made from oil, and now use Woolcool® to deliver all our delicious dairy, fish, meat and pies. Woolcool® insulation is made from British sheep's wool which would otherwise go to waste.
Unlike polystyrene, wool doesn't break - and we're getting many more uses from each of our Woolcool® boxes. It costs a bit more though – so please leave them out for collection. You can find out more here.
Some of your ideas...
"Use the egg cartons to start seeds off, when they're big enough they can be transplanted, with the cardboard shell, into a bigger pot – it works as an alternative to coir pots."
"The large brown bags are brilliant for emptying bagless vacuum cleaner dust into."
"The string you use to tie the boxes with are just the right size for Cat's Cradle."
"The larger paper bags make excellent kitchen-scraps-caddy liners – just cut the top off the bag, leaving 6′′-8′′ of the bottom part (depending on how tall your caddy is), recycle the top and use the bottom as a liner, which can then go in the compost with the scraps."