Compostable catering disposables manufacturer and BBIA member Vegware has extended its composting collection service to Bristol, allowing the city’s food businesses to ‘close the loop’.
Vegware’s Close the Loop trade collections service sees used compostable disposables collected from food businesses to be turned into compost for use in UK fields. Additionally, Vegware also runs a bring-back scheme, Composting Collective, which increases the amount of disposables captured for composting.
Launched in Scotland in 2017, Close the Loop will now be introduced in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, collecting used Vegware disposables from cafés, offices, schools and universities for industrial composting.
The University of the West of England (UWE) has already signed up to Bristol’s Close the Loop, in response to concerns from their 33,000 student and staff body. Now, used Vegware from the main student restaurant at UWE’s Frenchay campus is turned into compost for Gloucestershire farmers. UWE’s Sustainable Projects Officer Eddy Piper says: “We are pleased to have found a way to reduce the impact of our single-use packaging.”
Takeaway is an integral part of consumers’ lifestyles, yet on-the-go recycling is known to be challenging. Vegware’s new bring-back scheme, the Composting Collective, captures used Vegware for composting. The scheme also aims to encourage people to visit independent cafés over high-street chains.
The Composting Collective unites local cafes, creating a network of bring-back points for consumers to access composting, even if it was bought elsewhere. Members, like Café Matariki at Pacific Yoga, or the Epiphany Café at the Royal West of England Academy, showcase their participation with window stickers and in-café posters.