At the National Zero Waste Conference on November 8th and 9th, which was held in Vancouver, Spud was awarded a winner of the Canadian Innovation Showcase by the National Zero Waste Council and Think Beyond Plastic. The award was given for our most recent sustainability pilot project that has reinvented the relationship takeout food has with packaging. Accepting this award reminded us that, as a company, we are bold when it comes to taking on big sustainability challenges, but we can be shy about sharing these achievements with our community. Today, we are changing that mentality. We are proud to celebrate this huge accomplishment with our customers and are excited to continue to exemplify how we can all change the world, one bite at a time.
Spud’s Methodology to Packaging
Worldwide, roughly 32 percent of single-use plastic packaging produced does not make it to a recycling facility or even to the landfill, but to the ocean. This reality of the endlife of single-use packaging has always been the motive behind why we at Spud work tirelessly to reject the easy option of single-use packaging and instead pioneer new ways to use reusable packaging, wherever possible.
The Reusable Takeout Container Pilot Project
One of these innovations is the awarded Reusable Takeout Container Program which was piloted in partnership with one of our office clients. In the pilot, we delivered freshly-prepared Be Fresh meals in reusable takeout containers, which were later picked up, washed, and then reused.
Spud’s sustainability lead, Matt Livingston, commented on the program saying, “Operationally this is a difficult program and it takes a team of people who are committed to doing the right thing for the planet in order to make it a reality.”
It is thanks to Spud’s culture of creativity and risk-taking, as well as our community of passionate customers, that these types of crazy sustainability ideas are able to be mobilized time and time again.
The Spud Sustainability Team’s Next Steps
With the success of the pilot project, we are currently working with Vancouver Coastal Health to launch the program to Spud customers in the near future!
In addition, we have many more projects in the works that will completely revolutionize how food and drink is packaged when we need it on-the-go. Our Spud sustainability team is guided by the wise words of Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
As we work through all the road bumps on our quest to zero waste, we are grateful and excited to have all of our Spud customers joining us along this journey.
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