recycling greengrocer bags
Recycling is as important to us as it is to you. That’s why we have gone to great lengths to ensure that all our standard food bags are made from 100% recyclable materials. Noting that the ‘design life’ of a Greengrocer bag is around 2 years or just over 100 average supermarket shopping visits*, it should be some time before you need to recycle a bag...but of course accidents will happen!
At Greengrocer, we have developed and implemented design & production processes that effectively minimise environmental impacts across the entire life cycle of our bag products. This, combined with the fact that our standard food retail products can be recycled whole, without any disassembly, distinguishes us from the competition!
All this perhaps sounds great but we hear you ask ‘what does this mean in practical terms?’
Well, recycling of your pre-loved but worn out Greengrocer bags is pretty straightforward. For now there are two easy ways you can recycle your Greengrocer bags if you wish. You can do one of the following:
- Check with your local or regional council that they can handle PP (polypropylene) material. If they can, simply put it out with your household plastic bottles. You can leave the bag intact because the entire bag is recyclable.
- Return your bag to us by post (or in person if you feel like a chat) and we will recycle it for you. Simple.
Or alternatively,
When our large-scale recycling strategy is fully implemented, you will be able to buy and recycle Greengrocer bags from the leading UK retailers we are talking to. Some of the larger retailers will have Greengrocer deposit points for you to use. This ‘recycling at point of sale’ idea is central to our way of managing recycling demand and is part of our ‘Design for Remanufacture’ ethos...but more about that in a moment.
We will keep this page updated with important news about places where you can recycle our products.
About DfM – At Greengrocer (UK) Limited we subscribe to and advocate the concept of Design for Manufacture (DfM). This approach is where product designers and manufacturers select materials and manufacturing techniques suitable for large scale recycling and remanufacture. Initially we researched many commercially viable recyclable or compostable bag materials around. This included evaluation of cotton, paper, jute, hemp and a variety of others. We assessed materials and their remanufacturing capabilities to determine the best materials and production processes to ensure the most efficient and profitable remanufacture of post-consumer bag waste.
We settled on non-woven PP for good reason. The raw materials are a co-product of commercial chemical production (formerly burnt as waste before recovered to make PP), it’s really energy efficient to process and only a small amount of water vapour and C02 is released when it is reprocessed. Overall it is a great material for recycling and it is well suited for DfM.
The unique make-up of our bags means that when a Greengrocer Bag reaches the end of its natural life, the whole bag may be placed in a dedicated PP recycling bin to be recycled. The collection and large-scale recycling of post consumer Greengrocer bag waste is simple, efficient, viable and economical.
Many people often ask: What are Greengrocer bags made from and how environment-friendly are they?
Well these questions and more are answered right here...
For any additional information about Greengrocer recycling please contact us.
Greengrocer – Reduce Reuse Recycle.
*With good care, your Greengrocer will last around 2 years or just over 100 average UK shopping trips. Although Greengrocer bags are light and tough, it's best to avoid loading sharp objects because the fabric isn't indestructible. With care labels with washing instructions inside all our bags, it's easy to look after your Greengrocer bag...as we say 'Use to Reuse!'
