Rolling out sustainable bread bags with 30% recycled plastic

Woolworths has changed the packaging for its Own Brand sliced bread to bags made from 30% recycled plastic.

Launched in June, the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) food-grade bags manufactured by Amcor are in use across six bread products.

Using advanced recycling technology (via the mass balance approach¹), the bread bags’ recycled plastics have added to the tens of thousands of tonnes of virgin plastic Woolworths has removed from its supply chain.

The new bags will feature across the following bread lines:

• Soft White Sandwich
• Soft Wholemeal Sandwich
• Soft White Toast
• High Fibre White Sandwich
• Soft Multigrain Sandwich
• High Fibre Multigrain Sandwich

Via a range of packaging sustainability initiatives, Woolworths has removed tens of thousands of tonnes of virgin plastic from the supply chain over the last five years. These include:

• The development of a range of kerbside recyclable paper-based Macro brand pouches, which have replaced plastic pouches and removed 90 tonnes per year of soft plastic from Woolworths’ supply chain.
• Recyclable paper-based meat trays that use 75% less plastic and enable kerbside recycling.
• Recyclable paper-based fresh grape packaging that removes 20 tonnes of plastic from the supply chain.
• Recyclable paper-based packaging for cocktail truss tomatoes that removes 30 tonnes of plastic from the supply chain.
• In-store bakery clam shells and lids that are made from 80% recycled plastic and are now recyclable.

Woolworths Head of Packaging sustainability Bryan McKay said, “We understand our customers want us to remove and reduce plastic and improve recycling opportunities from the products we sell, so we’re firmly focused on innovative ways to improve packaging and offer more sustainable options wherever we can.

“Working with Amcor and incorporating recycled content into our bread bags is another significant step towards our goal of reducing virgin plastic and championing a more circular economy.”

The Vice-President of Sustainability Operations & Advocacy for Amcor Europe & Asia-Pacific, Gerald Rebitzer, said, "We’re proud to work in partnership with Woolworths on its Own Brand product range to deliver more sustainable packaging that supports a circular economy. These bread bags are recycle-ready and include 30% recycled content, a clear example of how we can help keep plastics in use and reduce waste without compromising quality or performance.”

The new Woolworths bread bags can also be returned to 500 Woolworths stores where soft plastics collection is available in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory under a pilot trial.²

_{1. The sourcing approach for this recycled content, used by many companies around the world, is called mass balance. In the case of plastic packaging, mass balance refers to the proportion of material coming from processing recycled plastic versus that coming from virgin sources during the manufacturing process of plastics. This means you can’t trace how much recycled plastic makes its way physically into the packaging of each individual bread bag.}

_{2. Participating Woolworths can be found here.}