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and welcome to today's webinar, which is on turning waste into value and circular economy strategies for food and drink businesses, which is brought to you by our professional affiliate members NatWest, and we're also joined with speakers from RAP and Biggums.
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First of all, thank you to everyone for joining us today.
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We hope that you found the content useful.
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There will be a Q &A at the end of the session, so please put any questions that you have into the questions box, and we'll do our best to go through as many as we can at the end the webinar.
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We'll also be recording today's session and in the next few working days we'll be sending a copy of the recording along with a copy of the slides and the contact details of stage presenters.
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So, without any further ado, I will hand you over to our host of this webinar, Esther Clark. Thanks so much, Luke. I'm Esther.
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I'm a Climate Strategy Manager at NatWest and I'll be your moderator for the next hour. So, it's fantastic to see so many of you joining us today.
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we know how busy you all are, so thank you for taking the time to be here with us.
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Over the next hour, you'll hear from a brilliant line up of speakers representing the FDF, RAP, Charlie Biggams and Nat West.
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So let me briefly introduce them to you now, so that you know who's coming up and what to expect.
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So first on the agenda today, we have my colleague Esther Ho. Esther is a climate manager and circular economy advocate at Nat West.
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Esther will be speaking to us about sustainable value creation through circular practices.
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Next up, we have Hugh Jones, specialist in food system transformation at WRAP, and Jonathan Moore, specialist in material system transformation also at WRAP.
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Hugh and Jonathan will go a bit deeper into some of the opportunities presented by circular living.
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We'll then have Kat He, head of packaging strategy and advocacy at the FTF, who is going speak with us about closing the loop on food packaging in the UK.
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And finally, we're delighted to be joined by Rob Farr, Director of Procurement, Sustainability and Operational Transformation at Charlie Biggams, who's going to share some insights into Charlie Biggams' journey so far.
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And today's session has really been designed to help you think about how your business could to take steps to adopt circular practices and unlock value through taking action.
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I know Luke's touched on this, but just a quick bit of housekeeping. So the webinar is going to run until 12.
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We'll hear from each of our speakers first and then take your questions in the Q &A at the end.
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So please do add your questions into the chat box at any time during the presentations and we'll definitely make sure to get to as many as possible.
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So before I hand over, I also want to just say a quick word about why NatWest is proud to be part of today's session.
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So at NatWest, we're open and supportive of the consumer industry sector.
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We hugely value the strength of partnerships like the FTF, which help inform our policies and guide how we best support operators across the industry.
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Understanding and embracing the circuit economy is not only good for the planet, it's vital for making businesses future fit.
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It's about opportunity, not just about cost.
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And whilst we don't have all of the answers, we want to learn from our customers and partners and work together to find the solutions that will strengthen the sector. So with that, let's get started. I'm delighted to hand over to my colleague, Esther.
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So over to you, Esther. Thank you. Thank you, Esther.
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I promise not everyone that in NatWest is called Esther, but you've got two on the panel today.
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I'm Esther Ho, climate manager at NatWest and a strong advocate for circular economy.
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I've got just five minutes to set the scene from a NatWest perspective, why circular economy matter commercially before we dive into the fundamentals and practical examples with my fellow panellists.
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Let me start by acknowledging the reality here. Running a food and drink business in 2025 is genuinely complex.
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You are balancing spiralling energy and input costs, supply chain disruption, rapidly evolving reporting and disclosure requirements, and the increasing expectation on you to address sustainability challenge, climate change, biodiversity loss, food security, or while trying to hit growth and margin targets.
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These pressures, they don't sit in separate boxes.
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They are interconnected and amplify one another.
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In that complexity, it's understandable that sustainability can feel like a cost.
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But if the pressures are interconnected, why tackle them in silos?
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My invitation today is to reframe, treat circular practices as an effective lever that addresses the challenges and create value.
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You hear the fundamentals and practical from my fellow panellists in a moment.
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My focus for the next couple of minutes is on the commercial payoff.
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I look through this at revenue growth, cost reduction, supply chain resilience and compliance.
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First on revenue, secular practices, whether it's turning your surplus into innovative new products or reusable packaging, can unlock new revenue streams and strengthen your brand loyalty and supporting that top line growth that is so much needed, especially as large corporates tighten their procurement standards.
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And this isn't just a theory.
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Our NutWare's Future Feed report, a blueprint for long-term growth on insights based on from over 1 ,000 senior business executives across the UK sectors, shows that businesses aligning sustainability with commercial goals are outperforming peers.
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74% of these businesses say sustainability investment provide a competitive edge and sustainability increasingly shapes longer-term commercial objective for them.
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On cost, circular practices can reduce spend by cutting packaging and preventing food waste.
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Reuse and reverse logistics, for example, can preserve the value of packaging on your sheet rather than writing it off after one use.
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That is a way to protect your working capital and lowering that procurement outlay.
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And with Rab on the panel here, I want to credit their amazing research that highlights for every one pound invested in reducing food waste, businesses can see up to a 14 pound in return.
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And that's a compelling return on investment that one can't more.
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On supply chain resilience, the biggest exposure for this sector is around ingredients and raw material.
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Circular practices like building more local supplier networks and valorising byproducts can cushion commodity and logistic shocks, and even reduce exposure to tariff and long lead time.
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Again, our Nutwest, the same report I mentioned just now, showed that future fit businesses are 50% more likely to have implemented supply chain risk modeling, which underpins this decision in a volatile environment.
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Finally, compliance and risk regulation is tightening, which I know we will touch on in more details later, scope for reporting, the EPR, the DRS, and more is going to come as well.
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And circular practices, adopting it earlier, can help your business to stay ahead turning the compliance from a reactive cost into a proactive value driver.
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That's a really quick positioning.
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So as we go into the session today I'll encourage us to view circularity not as an environmental obligation but as a commercial opportunity.
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One that can grow revenue, reduce cost, build resilience and keep you ahead of regulation.
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As you listen to the next speakers, where does circular practises pay back fastest for you?
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And that's what I would invite you to think about throughout the session.
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And now I'll hand it back to Esther to take us through.
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Thanks so much, Esther.
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That was a really great introduction into why circular practises can drive both resilience and growth.
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And I'll now hand over to Rapp, who will help us step back and think about the bigger picture of circular living with a particular focus on food waste and plastics.
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So I'll hand straight over to Hugh Jones followed by Jonathan Moore. Thank you. Thank you very much Esther. If you could go on to the next slide please.
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So a quick introduction to wrap for those of you not aware we're with a global environmental action charity transforming our broken product and food systems to create circular living for the benefit of climate, nature, and people.
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For over 20 years, we've delivered programs that reduce CO2, waste, restore nature, and change people's behavior.
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Perhaps three-point plan using the power of collaboration to drive change is one, catalyze sector-wide action through volunteer agreements using packs and roadmaps to deliver shared targets.
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For example, through the UK Food and Drink Pact and UK Plastics Pact working with over 200 businesses and sharing these learnings with our Global Plastics Pact and Food Pact networks engaging over 1 ,000 businesses.
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Two, mobilizing groups of stakeholders through collective action projects that tackle challenging system-wide issues such as our work in Peru, South Africa, Spain and the UK where local action is having global impact in addressing some of the challenges around sourcing ingredients from water-stressed catchment areas.
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Three, driving transformative progress through ambitious one-to-one corporate partnerships and consultancy, tackling complex problems including those associated with packaging, which Jonathan will cover.
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Next slide, please.
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So circular living is a term coined by Rapp, building on the circular economy model to describe the people-centered change from our current linear take-make-dispose model to a circular design-make-reuse approach.
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As consumers of food and drink, we need to purchase considerably, buy what we need and use what we buy.
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We need to extend product lifetimes through correct storage, use of fridge and freezing to avoid spoilage, and for repair and resale read reuse, for example, using leftovers in other dish, redistribution, animal feed and or valorization.
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As businesses there is a need to optimize design by reviewing and innovating new product development, careful selection and replacement of ingredients, for example from less water-stressed areas, prolonging product lifetimes, improving logistics, sourcing locally where possible, extending shelf life through improved packaging, and providing better information to consumers on storage.
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Effective recycling, with a strong focus on avoidance of waste as a priority, followed by redistribution for human consumption, animal feed, and overallisation, before recycling through anaerobic digestion is considered.
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All contribute to resource-efficient production and moving towards more circular business models.
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The implications for businesses are to act now or lose out.
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That's the theory. In reality, how does this create value?
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Again, with the food and drink focus, revenue and customer, generating additional revenue streams by unlocking additional income from new product lines or services, for example, selling or repurposing byproducts on selling of excess stock or ingredients, stand out with circular propositions, for example, refill and reuse, particularly where these disrupt traditional models, reach new price-conscious audiences via discounted channels, and build engagement with customer services, enhancing brand affinity and improving customer value.
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For cost and operations, retain access to key raw materials or change into more sustainable ingredients, reducing exposure to supply shocks and input volatility and optimizing overall resilience.
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And this is highly relevant given recent increases in geopolitical and trade related uncertainty.
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Reducing material, energy production and disposal costs through supply chain efficiencies and waste reduction, especially in raw materials and manufacturing supply chains.
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Regulation and governance accelerate progress towards sustainability goals and stay ahead of evolving regulation, such as mandatory reporting, recyclability, additional taxation, and extended producer responsibility.
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And then finally, responding to increasing demand for circularity from boards and investors with the goal of identifying and delivering long-term valuation, long-term value creation, and risk mitigation.
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The simplest way of moving towards circularity is to reduce the demand for raw materials or ingredients, and that is become more efficient through the reduction of waste.
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Around the third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted.
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Circularity seeks to do more with less, hence the need to take action on food waste.
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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to reduce food waste per capita by 50 per cent by 2030 will not be achieved in a UK based on the current trajectory.
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If the UK maintains the rate of progress observed between 2007 and 2021, it will only reach a reduction of 30 per cent per capita by 2030 and miss our 50 per cent per capita target.
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The UK Food System Transition Plan recognises this, acknowledging that the food and drink industry won't be able to reach net zero targets without accelerating action on food waste.
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Next slide please.
15:07
Just touching on food and drink material hierarchy and the need to prevent food being wasted in the first place.
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This is achieved by identifying where there is potential for waste to be created and reviewing processes to see if the waste can be eliminated, ingredients reworked or byproducts turned into ingredients for new products.
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Where direct prevention is not as possible, consider how the surplus can be diverted for redistribution to people or sent for animal feed.
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To maintain circularity, food needs to remain above the dotted line, otherwise it becomes waste and we revert to a linear model. Next slide, please.
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So why take action?
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Here are some hard facts on the need for action, but also the potential benefits.
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From a business perspective, 91% of investors say that non-financial performance has played a pivotal role in their investment decision-making.
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And there's often a disconnect between reducing food waste and working towards net zero.
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Reducing your food waste reduces your greenhouse gas emissions by between 2 and 1 half or 3 and 1 half times the weight of food prevented from going to waste.
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And from a people's perspective, applying this positive impact at home as well as at work could result in a four-person household saving on average 1 ,000 pounds per year.
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Next slide please.
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So referring to RAP's three-point plan and catalyzing sector-wide action through voluntary agreements and roadmaps, our food waste reduction roadmap adopts the target measure act approach to delivering the shared targets.
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The focus is on reducing food waste within your own operations, your supply chain and consumer, that is household food waste supported by campaigns such as RAP's Love Food Hate Waste.
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The roadmap is free to sign up to and we provide practical steps to getting started through toolkits, resources and guidance, all freely available on our website. If not already signed up, commit and act now or lose out.
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Reducing food waste delivers both financial and environmental benefits.
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Drafting up an action plan to tackle your waste hotspots and prioritising them in terms of ease, cost and benefit of implementation is good practice.
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And interventions come in many forms.
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High tech, this week we've heard of the significant investment in AI in the UK.
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Also hearing of great results from the use of AI to interpret data with a Zest Nestle case study, identifying an 87% reduction in food waste in two weeks.
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And Little UK uses AI to improve fresh food forecasting with pilot study achieving a 15 percent reduction in food waste.
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Low tech, it's always good to talk and pull in the experience from the people around you, particularly where people are aware of an issue.
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Data provides evidence and helps develop a business case fraction.
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One example we were working on is where small amounts of waste very often lead to big numbers.
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A known problem but only through collection of data was the true cost realized and able to be initiated directors.
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The most basic identification of direct savings was the fact that through implementation of the intervention, waste collections were reduced from one article a week to one every three weeks, with return on investment measured in weeks.
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Use of byproducts, an example, Branston converts substandard potatoes into functional protein and starch, enabling 100% utilisation of the 350 ,000 tonnes processed per year.
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Zero waste is circular.
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No-tech, which is a bit of an unfair characterisation, is intended to reflect that it's a biological process rather than a technical one.
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Black soldier fly larvae are coming to the fore as a means of potentially preventing surplus from ending up as waste.
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and there are many options that provide conversion to protein, animal feed or further valorization into value-added products.
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The end destination determines whether the output is classified as surplus, circular or waste linear.
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I'll now hand you over to Jonathan for his part of the presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you Hugh.
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Good morning everybody as Esther's mentioned my name is Jonathan Moore from RAP where I'm part of the technical team on the UK plastics pact and I support the various pacts and initiatives around the globe.
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If we go to the next slide.
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My work focuses on the plastic waste hierarchy which is concerned with establishing the best waste management options with respect to their environmental impact.
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In all circumstances preventing waste in the first place is the preferred option with landfill incineration typically being the least desirable options.
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Moving the management option up the hierarchy should in theory reduce the impact of the resource on the environment.
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But as we in circularity and collect more materials, we then need to focus on the hierarchy of recycle contact, which is focused on mechanical recycling, which in essence is a process of chopping up plastics, cleaning them for use again. The hierarchy focuses on developing sustainable end markets.
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Only by doing this can we give sufficient value to drive increased collection.
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The next step is then to preserve use.
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For example, food contact materials that are used for non-food applications cannot then be used again for food contact.
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When we've done that we can then look to focus on preserving the purity, the manufacturing method and finally the properties.
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By doing this we start to generate fully closed-loop processes keeping material in circulation.
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For those areas where we can't mechanically recycle materials such as food contact films we can use non-mechanical methods to break down plastics into building blocks to make new virgin materials which is more carbon-intensive than mechanical recycling, but has an overall environmental benefit compared to landfill or energy from waste.
21:16
Could we have the next slide, please?
21:19
Putting the waste hierarchy into action, the UK Plastics Pact has focused on the removal of problematic and unnecessary packaging, ensuring items are designed for recyclability, driving up collection rates and increasing the use of recycled content, which has gone up three-fold in five years and Our large coverage of the UK packaging market has helped to drive this forward and we'll now look at a couple of case studies focused on this and you can download the reports with the links that are on the slides at the end of the webinar. So if we go to the next slide please.
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The first case study we'll look at is that of the milk bottle, an item of packaging many of us use regularly without considering the circularity of the design and the developments it has gone through The beauty of the humble milk bottle is its design. It's a unique piece of packaging only used for milk.
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This enables simple segregation by hand into a pure milk bottle stream.
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The fact that it is uncoloured and made of one material without ink supplied means it's the ideal start point to recycle back into a food contact product.
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That process was developed around 20 years ago and has been in production since.
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To most of us consumers, nothing has changed since. However, that is not the case.
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The design has been refining gradually, starting with standardising decoration.
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Then looking at the cap, already made out of HDPE, these initially presented a challenge because of their colour, which if not removed, could contaminate the material.
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The first stage was to reduce the amount of colour used, with the caps going from opaque to translucent, reducing the risk of contamination.
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The most recent development is the complete removal of colour from caps, allowing the material to be captured with the bottle recycled together, thereby increasing volumes and circularity.
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The success of the humble milk bottle has proved to be its greatest challenge though, because by producing a high quality, uncontaminated stream, there is demand from other sectors such as personal care.
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If used in this area, it can't then be used back into food contact. If we go to the next slide.
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For the next, for the second case study, we'll focus on films and flexibles, a product at the beginning the journey to circularity. Next slide please.
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Films and flexibles account for 34 percent of total packaging and 27 percent of consumer packaging.
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We know non-consumer films such as pallet wrap are already collected and recycled at scale.
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This is largely due to the fact that they are a single material without decoration.
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We need to drive the collection and recycling of consumer films where only a small proportion is actually recycled.
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This is due to the complexity of the by consumers compounded by a lack of opportunities to recycle.
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The UK Plastics Pack has focused heavily on design for recyclability of flexibles, and with our partners we've also started collecting films and flexibles at the front of store.
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This however is not of a great enough scale to drive that real change that we're all after.
24:18
We have the next slide please.
24:21
This is where FlexCollect comes in by testing a number of innovative plastic household collections and recycling pilots over the last three years.
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The project has provided a unique opportunity for government, local authorities, packaging producers and the waste industry to build vital understanding of how to incorporate flexibles into existing collections across different geographies, demographics and collection formats.
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The aim of the project is to build an evidence base, share learnings and develop best practice and also provide key insights into the operational issues, yields and recyclability of flexible packaging along with effective communications with residents and the cost of incorporating it into the UK's current recycling collection systems.
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This will all support the move to all UK households having doorstep collections by 2027. We have the next slide please.
25:14
The FlexCLEP project has been run by 10 local authorities reaching 160 ,000 households collecting about 400 tons of material.
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It shows that households are keen to engage, participate regularly and are able to provide high quality stream with low levels of contamination.
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Of the material collected 90 percent is the target material which is very high for this sort of project of which 62 percent is mono and thereby the easiest to find high quality end markets for.
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It's also been shown that these collections can be integrated into existing household schemes and the material is actually cost effective to collect.
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This lays the groundwork for collections to begin with the potential to collect 170 000 tons of the work now continues finding sustainable end markets for these materials before we then look to build circularity by moving items of the waste and recycling hierarchies.
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And to do this we all have a part to play in this by looking at where we could incorporate recycled materials in our current use of films and flexibles or actually by looking at other areas that could incorporate the recyclers such as transit packaging, pallets, point of sale materials and other areas.
26:23
If we go to the next slide. Say thank you very much for your time today.
26:27
Our contact details are shown on this slide and I'll hand back to Esther. Thanks so much Hugh and Jonathan.
26:35
That was an excellent overview of the challenges and opportunities in tackling food waste and plastics and some really practical examples for our audience to take away today.
26:47
Those are some really inspiring case studies and it's definitely great to see kind of clear examples of how moving to a circular, towards circular practices can create real impact and value.
26:59
Just a quick reminder to use the chat function to add any questions that you might have for our speakers today.
27:04
And we're now going to hear from the FDF who are driving the Ambition 2030 circular economy pillar. And I'm delighted to welcome Cat Hay. So over to you, Cat. Thank you.
27:18
Thanks so much, Esther.
27:19
And just to echo what you say, some really good advice and insights of bar from the panel this morning.
27:24
Despite what my title slide says I'm not going to be talking about tube strikes or anything like that you'll be relieved to hear but yes talking about closing the loop on food packaging and the FDF and our members perspective.
27:37
On the next slide I've just flung up another train analogy.
27:40
The UK packaging value chain is definitely at a bit of a set of points at the moment.
27:45
Are we going to carry on with the linear economy that previous speakers just mentioned or are we going to hit the Glasgow subway and go round and round in that circular loop that we all want to see? It is complicated.
27:56
On the next slide, Hugh flashed up a much more simple diagram of circular living as Rapp described it.
28:04
This is the circular economy in the UK and I don't expect you to read the details of this slide but what I did want to draw your attention to was where I've got the yellow arrow in the bottom right here.
28:15
There's a small loop of grey material that is going around the system and circular and being recycled over and over again, but the rest of it isn't.
28:25
So to make this simpler, on the next slide, this shows exactly what the gap is in terms of the material we're using and what's actually going back into the system.
28:36
And that little green part of the pie chart is just five percent that's moving around the system.
28:42
And where I'm from in Scotland, it's actually only 1.3%.
28:46
So we have a huge gap in our circular economy there.
28:51
So why is this?
28:54
Well, my role is spent around politics and policy.
28:59
And I'd say that the UK, there are some things that the UK can and can't control.
29:03
We are subject to global markets and global resources.
29:08
However, I would say that the four UK nations governments have rather dragged their feet over a lot of opportunity around circular economy.
29:17
I'd also add that, sadly, environmental policies are becoming more and more politicized.
29:21
I look at Scottish deposit return scheme and how that became a nationalist and unionist debate.
29:26
And when it comes to cash-strapped local authorities, remember every bin's a vote.
29:33
From the food and drink sector's perspective, the cost pressures continue to mount.
29:38
Food inflation is rising again, and the latest stats we published this week showed food inflation hitting 5.1% in August.
29:45
And we have to respond to our customer demand, whether that's the end consumer or retail customers.
29:51
So it's fair to say sometimes manufacturers have been a bit risk averse and nervous to go first.
29:58
The other thing is many producers are producing for markets beyond the UK and often they reflect back to us that one of the things they're trying to do around to find packaging that's the best fit for the most markets with other markets having different regulatory sort of regulations on their on their packaging. So what's coming up?
30:21
This was kind of alluded to yesterday earlier on in Esther's presentation where she talked about you know anticipating what's coming over the horizon.
30:29
These are what I call the death of tombstones once you see them you can't unsee them and I do think this is helpful that the government has these slides available, and links can be shared on those, which shows the policy and regulatory changes that are coming down the track.
30:44
And that longer term view does help to give the industry a bit more certainty about those regulatory changes that may be on the horizon.
30:52
What they also show is that the current governments have got ambition to deliver on a lot of long standing policy issues such as DRS, ETS, EPR and PPT.
31:00
I think that's enough three letter acronyms.
31:04
So deposit return scheme, emissions trading scheme, expanding it to waste, extended producer responsibility for packaging, that's what the small P in EPR stands for, and plastic packaging tax.
31:14
I also think it's good to see the Minister in Charge, Mary Cray, she's ex-head of sustainability at Primark, so she does really understand business supply chains and we've seen in recent times a really welcome pragmatism by her officials and good collaboration across the value chain with organizations like RAP and others supporting a much more circular economy.
31:37
So where might those gaps be in terms of the the policy and regulatory landscape?
31:43
On the next slide we move into 2026 and beyond and what I did want to draw your attention to is something that Jonathan just mentioned, that importance of collecting the flexible plastics.
31:53
As he said the flex collect projects have been absolutely fantastic and have shown some really positive results around consumers being willing to and taking action on making sure that that valuable material gets back and recycled.
32:08
However, I do think it feels ambitious.
32:11
Where are all those extra bins coming from when 2027 all local authorities in England will be required to collect flexible plastics, they'll be ordering their bins at the same time. Do we have a bin backlog?
32:23
We really, really need that as part of our circular ambitions for the industry, to make sure we can collect as much of that valuable material as we can.
32:36
So moving on a little bit, I would say EPR, Extended Producer Responsibility, definitely top of members priority lists when I speak to them.
32:46
Invoices will be hitting door mats and inboxes in a few weeks time where producers will be paying for the full cost of collecting and recycling their packaging.
32:59
The FDF has long been very supportive of the principle of EPR, We see it as a key way of driving up recycling rates and investment in infrastructure, but also at the packaging, design and innovation stage around minimizing packaging, unnecessary packaging, getting that off where it's not needed and also ensuring that the material we are placing on the market is as recyclable as it possibly can be and making it easy for the end consumer to do the right thing and get that right back to where it needs to be.
33:30
But it's not EPR at all costs for us, we do need the fees to be fair and to reward the most recyclable or reusable packaging.
33:38
We need the cadence of reporting and invoicing to allow producers to adequately plan and budget for those EPR fees and plan them into their years.
33:46
We do need urgent reform to the PRN system, we've long held the view that we need more transparency around packaging recovery notes and where that money goes and we want to make that valuable materials are not getting exported from the UK to either be incinerated or buried.
34:03
And ultimately we need to hand control of the running of the EPR scheme to producers as quickly as possible because where we see producer-led EPR around the world we see very high rates of recycling returns and that is a positive for everyone.
34:18
On the next slide I just outlined a benefits of a producer-led PRO.
34:23
The FDF, Inkpen, BRC and a number of producers are working away in the background with government to put a proposal together to take on substantive functions within the EPR scheme in future years, as soon as possible.
34:39
I mentioned earlier about collaboration across the value chain, working with organisations who are behavioural change experts such as RAP to make sure that citizens are fully engaged in recycling and they understand what we need to do when.
34:54
And capitalising on the existing EPR experience around the world, a lot of our members are involved in existing EPR schemes around the globe and we've taken elements of best practice from all of those schemes to try and come up with the best in class scheme for the UK.
35:10
That works ongoing and we're hoping that we would be appointed as a BRO early next year.
35:20
Moving on from that quickly though, I wanted to talk about a really positive case study that I come across recently, which is a really great example of how industry can play a key role in filling that gap.
35:31
The Bacal project aluminium is one of the most recyclable materials on the planet.
35:37
And in the UK, we're really good at collecting cans.
35:40
This will get even better when the deposit return scheme is up and running.
35:44
But the 15 billion cans that are made in the UK do rely on an energy-intensive supply chain that currently means aluminium cans, they're collected, exported, rerolled, and then re-imported.
35:57
And I think you'll all agree that that's not particularly efficient.
36:01
So Diageo has been working with the CAL project since 2021 and got funding from UK government, the Innovate UK, to look at the feasibility of a large scale circular economy strategy across the aluminium sector.
36:16
Essentially what happened was Diageo saw the mill sized gap within the infrastructure and has been working with partners to build a rolling mill in the UK for recycling of aluminium cans.
36:28
If the project does what it says in the tin, then we will see increasing use of recycled aluminium with Guinness cans made of 100% recycled material.
36:37
The mill will roll out more than enough for over 400 million cans of Guinness and pre-mixed Gordon's gin and tonic.
36:45
I think that's a win for everyone.
36:47
The project will also see carbon emissions reduced.
36:50
You won't need to export and import that aluminium sheet.
36:52
It will reduce the dependency on the raw materials needed to create those aluminium cans and a huge reduction to diageal scope 3 carbon emissions as the plant will use 95% less energy in the production of its aluminium sheet versus the traditional prime production methods.
37:08
And it's just a really great example of how industry and government and agencies can collaborate to plug those gaps within the circular economy.
37:20
But that's not just the end of the story. The journey beyond recycling obviously continues.
37:27
On the next slide, just a few things about reusable packaging.
37:31
Oh, there's a couple of slides missing there.
37:34
So essentially we had recently a statement of intent from the UK major supermarkets who issued a joint statement saying that they were keen to collaborate and start investigating about how we can capitalise on the opportunities for reusable packaging in the UK.
37:56
And also there was a recent report from Go Unpackaged where there were two reuse trials carried out in Aldea and Ocado.
38:04
Unfortunately slides seem to have gone a bit awry but essentially some of the key learnings from those trials produced some really positive results.
38:13
The reusable systems outperformed single use packaging and seven out of the eight environmental impact categories, including climate change, water use and resource use.
38:23
There were some really positive findings around the breakeven points.
38:27
I mean, how many times do you have to reuse those containers to achieve those environmental benefits?
38:33
And the report said between 50 and 20, well within the projected lifespan of the 60 uses.
38:40
And there were significant environmental benefits including reductions in climate change impact, 46% for granola, 35% rice and 88% for detergent, and lower water use and fossil resource consumption compared to the single use alternatives.
38:55
So some really exciting work coming down the line on reuse.
38:59
I think there'll be some very large scale and some very hyper local solutions in relation to reuse.
39:05
And again, as manufacturers, we want to be able to understand our role and play their role within that.
39:12
Now there are challenges around refill.
39:16
Within the manufacturing space, we need to make sure that manufacturing processes such as line speeds, hygiene, storage and shelf life can be maintained.
39:26
But there's huge advantages in terms of potential cost savings, for example, you'd only pay once through the EPR scheme to place that packaging on the market.
39:35
You could potentially drive consumer trust and loyalty, long-term cost savings in some cases, and reduce exposure to the volatile raw material prices for packaging.
39:45
I personally think the opportunity lies more on the pre-fill and return online models, although I may be biased, as years ago I used to work in Whole Foods, the American supermarket chain.
39:55
Those little bulk bins of dry staples we've seen trials of were usually spilled all over the floor by inquisitive little hands pulling up handles, and in my department, the wine department, our refillable wine station suffered the odd bloodbath when someone either accidentally or on purpose opened the tap on the wine barrel and let the entire contents bleed out onto the floor.
40:14
There was also an incident where a customer returned a nearly empty refillable wine bottle the day after purchase, claiming it had been contaminated with an earwig, which wasn't possible given the ED rig was still alive and kicking and presumably very drunk. The joys of customer service.
40:29
So I think where you can have pre-fill and have a model set up that keeps the supply chain integrity intact and looks at that hygiene and ensures no contamination then there's some real mileage in there and we're looking forward to working with other partners on that as time goes on.
40:47
So my closing call, mind the gap, not between ambition and but today's packaging reality and tomorrow's circular economy.
40:54
If we do close it, we won't just tick compliance boxes, we'll build trust, loyalty and resilience for our brands and deliver something far more valuable, a food system that's more sustainable and more resilient.
41:05
If you want to know further information, as Esther alluded to in the start of the presentation, our Ambition 2030 strategy, we have a packaging pillar which sets out some actions that industry can take to make their packaging more sustainable.
41:19
Thank you very much I'll hand back to Esther. Great, thank you Kat.
41:24
That's a really clear and helpful overview of the policy and regulatory drivers and how businesses can really start to prepare for some of these incoming changes.
41:32
So to round off our speaker line up for today, I'm delighted to introduce Rob Farr from Charlie Biggums who will share insights into Biggums's journey so far and some of the work that they've been doing in this space.
41:44
I have to say I'm a big fan of their meals and I know I'm the only one on this call. So over to you Rob, thank you.
41:52
Great thank you Esther and thank you to NatWest and to FDF for inviting us to speak today to you all today.
41:59
I hope you can hear me okay.
42:01
So what I've been asked to talk about is a little bit about our food waste progress and a bit about some of our fairly unique packaging.
42:10
So for those of you that are familiar with our business and you will be familiar with these products but I'll just give you a very brief introduction to who we are and just sort of set the scene. So I guess where to start?
42:27
So I suppose we are a chilled prepared food business and you'll see us in most of the chiller isles, in most of the major supermarkets.
42:35
We've been around for about 30 years but a lot of people wonder if Charlie is a real person or is he a captain bird's eye so Luke if you could flick on for me.
42:45
So Charlie is a real person and he like I say he started the business almost 30 years ago he quit his job in in the corporate world in his 20s disillusioned with what it was with where his life was going and decided to travel around the world in a in a BW camper van much like this one and came back from traveling decided he wanted to set up a food business that was a bit different from those that already existed, and started making meals in his kitchen at home, selling them to independent retailers in London.
43:15
And then, as it happens, a waitress buyer walked into one of those food retailers and bought one of his meals and got in contact.
43:24
And the rest, as they say, is history.
43:25
So that was almost 30 years ago.
43:27
We now have two kitchens, probably about 800 people.
43:31
Luke, if you could flip on.
43:33
So the first kitchen is London, and this is where we make about seven million meals a year and doing most of our more innovative products, including our desserts and our pies.
43:43
And then the next slide, this is our Somerset kitchen.
43:47
So here we produce about 24 million dishes.
43:51
This is in an old disused quarry.
43:53
So it was a Brownfield site that Charlie found and wanted to make better use of it.
43:59
So we have about 60 acres on the site and about 20 of Wildflower Meadow, which I think is where the cameraman was lying when he took this picture.
44:08
But yeah, it's a really nice, for a food business, a really fantastic location and we've got a lot of photovoltaic on-site generating our own power.
44:18
So really trying to do something different.
44:20
We work with our local suppliers and there's lots of investment going on to further reduce our carbon and our automation in terms of carbon footprint. So I'll come on to that in a second.
44:32
So, and so yeah, let's get into the number bit and Luke, click on. So food waste. And yeah, it's a problem for all of us.
44:38
This is a stock picture.
44:39
This is not a picture from our backyard, I should hasten to add, but you know, it's a mountain of a problem. And we are no exception in both of our kitchens.
44:48
So we felt we needed to do something about it.
44:51
And so on the next slide, you'll see that, I guess over the past three years we've been on quite a journey and we've been about just under 2% of all our raw materials coming into both kitchens was effectively going into a bin at the end of the day. A vast majority of that food waste was edible.
45:11
So in our financial year 24, about 330 tonnes of edible food waste was being disposed of.
45:17
This current financial year we've more than halved that.
45:20
But what's really exciting is that actually the daily amount that's now going in the bin at the end of that financial year which we just completed is zero. So we've gone from 330 odd tons 18 months, two years ago down to zero.
45:35
So I'm just going to tell you a little bit about how we've done that on the next slide.
45:41
So it all started I guess with trying to understand what we were wasting, what exactly were we generating in terms of waste? Was it edible? Was it not edible?
45:50
So doing a detailed review both kitchens and to quantify and define that and then making sure that we knew exactly where they should be disposed of.
45:59
We invested a lot of money in improving our accuracy, so new scales in both production sites took waste down by 84 tons almost immediately, so being that much more precise, you know, a few grams here or there, you know, we're not a huge business but we've got a decent scale. So a few grams here or there can make a big difference.
46:21
We've also introduced dishes to use up surplus.
46:24
So for example, one of our products takes in a whole chicken, which we butcher down, but the chicken wings are going spur.
46:31
So these chicken wings we then used in a side dish, an Indian side dish. So trying to be thoughtful about how we're using that waste.
46:42
And then also, you know, still generating leftovers. We do lots of trials.
46:45
We're always trying to improve our product and any raw materials that are suitable will go to one of our two staff cafes.
46:51
And indeed, sometimes we batch cook everything.
46:55
Sometimes a retailer doesn't take a whole batch.
46:58
So we're trying to avoid that, of course, but if on the rare occurrence that does happen, we then finish goods into what we call a take home fridge in the reception of each kitchen for our staff to take home for their tea on that evening.
47:13
So just trying to make sure that, you know, got a home for everything.
47:16
And then I guess the last sort of one before we move on is just really being really almost pernickety about how we label our waste.
47:26
So it's not just, oh, we don't need that. Let's just throw it in the bin and forget about it.
47:30
It's like, okay, that waste was produced on this day. Let's market, bag it. And so we know exactly where it is and what we can do with it.
47:38
So that then led us into working with our charity partners.
47:41
So on the next slide, and I'll just give you a bit of background here.
47:45
So we've worked with three primary charities, Fair Share, sorry, I've got a technical glitch.
47:58
Fair Share and City Harvest and Coronation Food Project.
48:02
And so what we've been doing in London, we make a lot of pies, as I mentioned, the pies we make from block pastry, and so we have leftover trimmings.
48:11
So we've been boxing those up and sending them into City Harvest.
48:15
So we've added a process there to do something with the pastry so that City Harvest can make use of it.
48:21
Chicken wings, as I've mentioned, they're being bagged up and sent in.
48:25
We've also been making sauces, ragus.
48:29
We've also made soup with any leftovers, which Fair Share and the Coronation Food Project have used.
48:34
So we've had to add value in many cases.
48:37
We've not just sent a huge big bin of waste to a charity, we've actually had to do something with it so that they can use it.
48:43
So Luke, if you click on.
48:47
So yeah, here on the left, you can see some of the team here boxed up some of that pastry trimmings.
48:52
Yeah, and these churches, brilliant, you know, without them, they're the real key to making this work.
48:57
You know, we can do whatever we want with the waste, but they're the people that are really finding a home for it.
49:02
So some of the guys in London, you know, such as the them, which is absolutely brilliant.
49:13
So the numbers are pretty good, 59 tons of chicken wings, 242 ,000 meals in our previous financial year.
49:20
So the numbers are stacking up, and like I say, it's something we're really proud of, but we have had to invest.
49:27
So we've spent about 100 ,000 pounds on equipment, various alternative forms of packaging, and obviously labor time to do it.
49:34
So it doesn't sort of come for free, but I suppose the point for us is we need to think how we streamline that and make it more part of the process as well as trying to reduce the waste in the first place.
49:44
But overall we've donated now almost three quarters of a million meals since we've been doing this process which is brilliant.
49:51
So that's sort of a very brief overview, very quick overview on food waste and then very briefly because I'm conscious of time packaging-wise. So you will be familiar with our wooden trays if you flick on.
50:05
So, we have a few key components.
50:07
The wooden trays is brilliant.
50:09
It's ten times the carbon footprint – or ten times lower carbon footprint, I should say – than aluminum equipment, or six times smaller than the recycled plastic equipment.
50:18
So, it's absolutely brilliant.
50:20
Luke, if you flick on, it's produced using poplar wood.
50:24
It's grown as a crop in France, processed into plywood, and steam-bent under pressure to form our tray.
50:32
And then the consumer, obviously, can then dispose of it.
50:35
They can dispose of it either in home compost, garden waste collections, or take it to the local refuse for wood recycling.
50:43
So the only catch here is it's not commonly collected as part of a sort of a stand doorstep collection such as milk bottles rather than cans, but absolutely can be composted within 12 months.
50:54
So, you know, it's something we'd love to work on, but it's absolutely brilliant from a carbon footprint point of view.
50:58
And then following slide, just wanted to briefly, briefly talk about plastic and it's not all bad. Plastic gets a bad name.
51:06
We need plastic still for our food wrap.
51:10
We were the first in Europe to introduce a film with 30% recycled content, which has had a huge impact on our carbon footprint and saved us over £160 ,000 a year.
51:21
So, you know, you can tick both boxes and particularly on these packaging projects.
51:26
But, next slide please, but the, I guess, you know, went far from perfect and I found this quote from a previous and maybe slightly more popular, dare I say it, US president in the current.
51:37
And no matter how much you've done or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve.
51:43
And the following picture is something I took earlier this week in our quarry kitchen.
51:48
This is about two hours worth of cardboard boxes for our, to go into stores and there's huge amount of cardboard here and not that many fish pies, tika masalas will go into it.
52:00
So we're investing in a kit to erect these boxes with much less raw material which will massively reduce the amount we use and obviously save us a fair chunk of money.
52:11
So conscious I've worked that at speed but I'd like to say thank you very much and we are available in all good supermarkets and so thank you for your time.
52:22
Thanks so much Rob, that was such an engaging example of how secular economy thinking can kind of start to be embedded into business practices and the amazing progress that you're making at Charlie Biggins.
52:35
And thanks once again to all our speakers, it's been fantastic hearing such a range of perspectives.
52:40
I know I've taken away some really useful insights and I hope that many of you have too.
52:47
Unfortunately we only have a couple of minutes left so I'm going to open it up for your questions now and I've got one here for Rob actually.
52:56
So Rob, what advice would you give to other businesses who want to embed circular economy initiatives but unsure where to start?
53:04
Do you have any kind of practical tips and tricks you could share? Yeah sure, thanks Esther.
53:09
I think it's all about understanding the problem really, and understanding who your key stakeholders are. So for us, we're not a charity.
53:18
The bottom line is king, I suppose, and we need to be profitable to invest in our business.
53:24
So making sure we understand the problem, making sure we understand what cost is involved is absolutely key and who the key stakeholders are.
53:32
So I think if you can demonstrate a sound business case as well as doing the right thing, then there should be no barriers.
53:39
So most examples I've shared very quickly earlier would sort of tick all those boxes.
53:44
So get your facts straight.
53:45
Get your get your get your stakeholders on board.
53:47
It's the first protocol I'd say. I'd say brilliant.
53:51
Thanks. Thanks, Rob.
53:52
That's great advice and one for Hugh.
53:56
So what are some of the easier first steps businesses can take on food waste reduction?
54:03
Yeah, so building on what Rob said, really, and talk is cheap.
54:07
So, you know, have a chat with your staff and your supply chain partners to see where the potential issues are.
54:14
Measure is the important thing in terms of identifying the hotspots of waste.
54:19
You then, with that information, you've got to focus, do you go for the cost or the volume elements?
54:25
So one is obviously business-related, the other is environmental-related, and as Rob says, you know, you need to invest as well to help deliver the savings.
54:35
And then I think the key thing is ownership.
54:39
So again, it's not a question of putting these interventions on the people who have to implement them. They have to own it.
54:47
They have to be engaged and supportive of the initiatives.
54:53
So start very easily with your quick wins, your low cost, get a bit of momentum going and then you can tackle the bigger issues.
55:04
Great, thanks Hugh and probably one minute, this is one for you I think Cat if you're happy to answer.
55:11
So what more do we need from the UK government to support UK food manufacturing in circular practices but very happy to open it out to others who might want to jump in there?
55:22
Yeah I'll start and then maybe it'd be good to hear from RAP colleagues as well on this.
55:26
So I think from our perspective we've just seen there was an Innovate UK fund, a smart sustainable packaging fund ran for several years. I think that fund was around 60 million.
55:37
It unlocked at least two, three hundred million of private sector investment as a result of that.
55:43
So a great example of how government support around innovation can then unlock that industry piece.
55:49
That fund's now closing and there isn't, you know, another fund opening in a similar vein.
55:56
So I really do think we want that we want to make sure that we can be a leader in circularity and that's you know part of the UK government's growth agenda then we need to make sure that they are putting in that little bit of money to unlock investment from industry that's really really important and then the other point is just around certainty so the long-term view for businesses to be able to invest around circular economy is super super important.
56:22
Great and Jonathan do you have any 30 seconds to add that or is that covered?
56:29
Yeah I think if you look at the regulations we're going to be having coming through now that's going to help really drive change but we still need work in the interim to actually support the recycling industry because at the moment they are still struggling to actually maintain plants and facilities without the demand so it's across the board there it's not only government support but it's industry support to try and use those materials and ensure that they source locally as well, so that we can maintain our own recycling infrastructure.
56:57
Yeah, that's a great, great answer. Thank you. So, time, sadly, our time's up today.
57:04
So thank, thank you everyone for your excellent questions. I'm sorry we couldn't get to them all today.
57:09
As we close, I want to give a huge thank you to all of our speakers who've participated, Esther, Hugh, Jonathan, Kat and Rob, for sharing their insights and experiences with us today.
57:20
And of course, thank you to all of you for joining us.
57:24
The recording, as Luke mentioned, will be available afterwards.
57:27
If you're an FDF member, don't hesitate to reach out to the FDF for further information.
57:32
If you're an Outwest customer, please do get in touch with your relationship manager.
57:36
We'd love to continue the conversation on this.
57:39
And circularity, as you will have heard, is a huge and complex topic.
57:43
And today's session has only really scratched the surface.
57:47
But I hope you're leaving us with some practical insights fresh ideas about how your business can either start or continue on that journey of turning waste into value. So thanks once again and we look forward to seeing you at our future events. Bye for now.
