The rollout of Tip Top brand's recyclable cardboard bread bag tags has now reached NSW and Victoria following the initial release in SA, and overall will see one hundred million plastic bread tags eliminated from the annual waste streams of Victoria, NSW and SA.
The move will eventually eliminate 400 million pieces of single-use plastic every year as the tags roll out across Australia and New Zealand.
In an Australian-first innovation in 2020, the veteran baker switched polluting plastic tags for an eco-friendlier, 100 per cent recycled and recyclable cardboard bag tag in South Australia. Now, shoppers in NSW and Victoria can also buy their Tip Top bread with what the company calls a 'cleaner and greener' conscience.
“We’re doing it because it’s simply the right thing to do,” says Graeme Cutler, director of sales and CSR lead at Tip Top ANZ.
“We want to be proactive, rather than wait for our customers to ask us to address our waste. And, when it comes to working together as a nation to eliminate single-use plastics, we want to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
“Developed after rigorous testing and learning, the sustainable bag tags promise no compromise on freshness and taste.
“Customers can expect to be provided with the same Tip Top quality – freshly baked every day – that millions of Australians have enjoyed since the bakery began in 1958.”
Following on from its debut in SA, the initiative will remove almost 100 million tags across the three states, potentially removing 35 tonnes of plastic tags from entering waste streams.
Tip Top encourages consumers to recycle their cardboard tags in kerbside recycling bins by tucking the tag securely inside other paper or cardboard products, such as an envelope or paper bag, giving them the best chance of being recycled into new product rather than being sent to landfill.
According to figures from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australians consume roughly 3.5 million tonnes of plastics annually, and Australian households are the largest contributors to this waste.
“Small pieces of plastic such as bread tags are problematic in recycling and waste streams,” adds Rebecca Gilling, deputy CEO of Planet Ark.
“For this reason, Planet Ark is pleased to see Tip Top designing out waste by replacing plastic bread tags with a circular solution made from 100 per cent recycled cardboard. When recycled, the carboard will be used again, closing the recycling loop and keeping resources in use.”
The Australian government has plans to phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2025, the Victorian government has committed to ban certain single-use plastic items by February 2023, while the NSW government has plans in place to phase out these plastics from next year. Tip Top has similarly lofty goals.
On top of the Australia-wide rollout of the cardboard tags planned to take place over the next two years, the sustainable bread tags are just the first of a series of packaging innovations under the company’s ‘Feeding Aussie families more sustainably’ vision, including addressing recycling confusion by updating packaging with the Australasian Recycling Label.
“It’s part of the bigger picture for us. Our goal is that by 2025, all Tip Top packaging will be 100 per cent recyclable, reusable or compostable, to help us close the loop on waste,” concludes Cutler.
