Helga's gets a roll on towards sustainability goals

Bread company Helga’s has announced it has recently improved its sustainability initiatives, with a focus towards reducing waste, recycling plastic and switching to 100% renewable energy across its baking operations.

The company’s plastic packaging for loaves, rolls and wraps are now 100% recyclable through REDcycle at participating stores. This is aimed to reduce waste to landfill and contribute to new products being created from the recovered plastic.

“Our focus on reducing the impact of packaging and plastic waste starts with design and innovation,” said Helga’s Head of Sustainability for Goodman Fielder, Mick Anderson. “This includes reducing the plastic content of our bags by 25%.

“We want to educate and enable consumers on how they can participate in that process, helping to potentially recycle more than 62 million bags each year.”

Helga’s will also introduce 100% recyclable cardboard bread tags across its range in September. The company said the small, yet significant step has the potential to remove additional pieces of single-use, small plastic materials from the waste stream.

It follows Helga’s previous announcement in July where the company switched to 100% renewable electricity across its owned bakeries in Australia.

“The switch to 100% renewable electricity for our Goodman Fielder operated bakeries is a critical step for Helga’s,” Anderson said. “By using renewable electricity at our Goodman Fielder operated sites, we are moving closer to our target of net zero carbon emissions by 2040; reducing our own and our consumers’ climate impact.”

Image credit: Helga's