Sorry to call you out @neeklamy but that’s not right. I have had a look into the email conversation you had with us about this and you asked a few questions. We replied to them all directly and the answers were:
"I can confirm the ready-to-drink bottle is indeed wrapped with a plastic label.
It generally does not need to be removed prior to recycling, but doing so certainly doesn’t hurt at all.
Recycling processes vary, so can’t guarantee everywhere, however as it doesn’t need to be removed, their isn’t a zip currently.
The label can be recycled, but not all places can recycle it, it depends on your local recycling chain."
The sleeve is made out of PET, like the bottle itself.
No offence taken don’t worry! This is the bit I felt was incorrect based on the email conversation.
Recycling methods, how materials are defined and what materials are recycled change depending on your location.
Your suggestions and feedback are great and it is something being continually investigated by our Ops team. We want to improve our bottles, but we’re limited on what materials are available and possible to be used on the machinery we have access too. Which links back to the points we have at the beginning of this thread, that currently it’s much better than the majority of alternatives out there, but we know we can do better.
Hi - I haven’t read all of this feed but I want to add to the voices about the RTD packaging. I am astounded that the bottle is wrapped in a sleeve that you can’t remove easily. For a company that is all about reducing waste I think this is a terrible move. The sleeve is not widely recyclable and will also interfere with the recycling process of the bottle. I recently listened to an article about someone being employed on a recycling line simply to remove sleeves from sports drinks. Why would you do this on one of your products! It doesn’t make any sense and makes me now question the ethics of a company that’s main trading points are ethics, reducing waste and sustainability. Bad move.
Now hold on. Don’t misquote me or get the wrong idea. Thing is, who says Huel isn’t doing things better for 1 thing? For another, attacking a small business because you disagree with them on their eco practices, while hundreds of thousands of other companies out there are doing more harm in 1 month than Huel does in 10 years is just sad .
It’s a difficult one the sleeve. Just so you know, the sleeve is made from PET-G and is 100% recyclable. However everything I’m about to write is totally dependent on the recycling centre.
You don’t always need to remove the label, they’re usually removed during the process, sometimes heated, sometimes using pressure to force them off. We can’t use paper because it affects the recyclability of the sleeve it uses a different glue which is harder to remove, and can burn when being heated and ruining the process or batch.
That’s quite extreme, and really sorry this makes you feel like that. You’re absolutely right, one of the cornerstones of our mission is sustainability and we are contributing massively to this in two ways:
Giving people more accessibility to plant-based diets
Reducing peoples food waste
Every one of Huel’s product use no animal products - this has repeatedly been shown to be one of the biggest things we can do to reduce our impact and work towards reversing climate change. By having a huge shelf life, as well as being made from powdered ingredients there is minimal wastage in the home and in the field/transportation.
These two points are numbers 3 and 4 in solutions to reversing climate change [here]
To counter your points, bioplastic, home-recycling and industrial recycling initiatives are numbers 47, 55 and 56, respectively.
I’m not saying we’re ignoring plastic, we absolutely are not. We have a team working on increasing the amount of recycled plastic in our RTD bottle, producing recyclable pouches and reducing plastic waste everywhere in our production.
My point is that to imply by having a sleeve on our RTD bottle means we go against everything we stand for is to ignore everything we are doing.
I agree, I might get one in a supermarket instead of a sandwich if saw it on the rare occasion I need to grab a sandwich quickly, but I wouldn’t drink them in the house because it’s simply not cost effective.
I tried an RTD in Sainsbury’s last week. It’s not for me, and I’d get up on a soap box about how it’s a clearly inferior product to the powder in many ways… but it’s still a good thing, relatively. It tastes good, is vastly more nutritious than the alternatives you’d be buying, and isn’t environmentally worse than them.
At £3.50/bottle they might need to snazz up the marketing style and get it into Waitrose/M&S, though. And yes, in the longer term anything they can do to improve the environmental footprint of RTD would be much appreciated, but let’s not expect Huel to defy the laws of the market.
Some great points. I agree stack the Powder up against RTD and Powder wins in terms of environmental impact and price.
However, RTD is there when you can’t make up a Huel with Powder and water, when you’re on the go or have forgotten lunch entirely. It’s an alternative to meal deals and other popular lunches such as sandwiches. Compared to those options Huel RTD is more nutritious, has less packaging and is better for the environment at a similar price point.
I’m the same as you, unless I’m caught short then Powder will always be my go-to.
Yeah this is exactly it. The RTD is a different use-case. We’re not trying to divert existing Hueligans away from Powder to RTD, this is about bringing more people in so that they too can get great nutrition when they’re short on time. I think we can forget here (because the majority here love Powder so much) that actually for many it’s a bit of a strange idea to add powder to water and shake – but we’re working on that stigma too, and with more and more complete food brands out there and more people buying into the concept more will choose Powder has the best option. No one here is thinking people are going to be having RTD when they’re at home.
Appreciate this comment, thanks. We’re on it, there’s no way we’re done yet.
Alas I have only 1 reason. It’s bottled in the States and shipped for sale in the UK here by boat.
International shipping is an environmental disaster, even with new emissions standards coming in companies are immediately finding ways around running cleaner ships by just dumping pollution directly into the sea instead of the air.
