In the Netherlands, tomato specialist RedStar has announced that it is taking a 'major step' in reducing plastic use for packaging in the supermarket.
According to the De Lier-based group, it has expanded a special production line so that even more tomatoes can be packed in thin plastic trays instead of thicker buckets – reducing plastic use by 40 per cent.
'Every day, we package about 150 tonnes of tasty tomatoes for our customers,' said Henri Lambriex, managing director of RedStar.
'In the supermarket, the customer increasingly makes a conscious choice for environmentally-friendly packaging,' he explained. 'We help them with this with our tomatoes in the shopping cart. Moreover, our tomatoes are more visible thanks to the plastic film. This works to our advantage because we grow tasty tomatoes. You can see that difference.'
For plastic trays with top seal films, the company uses 100 per cent recycled plastic, which can also be fully recycled after use.
'Thanks to the substantial expansion of the top seal packaging line, we not only need less plastic, but it’s also easier to adapt the appearance of the packaging to the wishes of the customer,' Lambriex added. 'Together with packaging specialist Sismatec, dealer of the Proseal machines, and innovative machine builder Koppert Machines, we have developed a flexible production line that can efficiently produce different sizes and shapes of packaging, from 250 grams to 1 kilo.'
