If I was in charge I would rule with an iron fist. People like you would be put in a gulag along with people who play music on public transport and talk to loudly on public transport and eat on public transport… in fact everyone. The train should just be for me… gulags for everyone
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I agree with the flags here and have emailed @oraCle. I don’t think there’s anything intentionally malicious here and the sentence, amongst friends, is just off-hand. However, totally agree it isn’t acceptable here.
I have amended the post and am going to clean up this thread.
To anyone else, please do search the forum before starting a topic as it’s highly likely the topic has been talked about before recently.
Also, can we move this subject back on topic as I also agree with suggestions conversations about underpants are off-topic (although intended to lighten the mood, which I appreciate).
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The impact of Huel’s packaging is tiny, we did a few sums and compared the amount of plastic packaging produced by the average person and compared that to the amount of Huel packaging we have sent out to date and found that there was a 240,000kg reduction in plastic packaging waste.
That’s over 2,500, very full, wheelie bins worth of plastic waste.[7] It can be easy to look at Huel and just see plastic packaging, but when we decide to use plastic we decide to use it for the right reasons – like extending our shelf life so we can reduce food wastage. However, when you look at all the Huel we have sold and compare that to the amount of plastic packaging thrown away in the average household the differences are stark. The average household has 2.3 people in[8] and they produce 70kg of waste a year, of which 29kg is plastic waste – that amounts to 400,520kg of plastic waste. For the same amount of food, Huel have produced less than 170,000kg of packaging.
It’s also worth noting, that whilst plastic reduction is so important to protecting the ecosystems of our oceans, it isn’t anywhere near as impactful as a plant-rich diet and reducing food waste (in terms of greenhouse gas emissions) - check out Drawdown research. Reversing climate change, for us, is the most important thing we need to focus on and something Huel helps with massively.
However, that doesn’t mean we’re just ignoring plastic waste. We delayed the launch of our RTD, for many reasons, but one of the big ones was we needed to launch in a 25% recycled bottle. Our efforts on a recyclable pouch (for Flavour Boosts, 3g sachets and big pouches) are getting close, but we must retain that shelf life because reducing food waste is the 3rd most impactful action that we can take as a global population to keep climate change within 2 degrees of warming.
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And in the grand scheme of things…
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The problems with recyclable packaging for a product like Huel powder are twofold:
Multi-layer packaging. Any food packaging needs appropriate barrier materials laminated on the inside to comply with food hygiene regulations – these are invariably polymer based bonded to a metallic substrate which in turn usually has another film laminated onto it for printing purposes. Recycling multi-layer packaging is more complex but not impossible - it simply requires a different workflow/machinery that recycling plants are often unwilling to adopt. Even when you see a pack that appears to be printed foil such as compressed coffee grounds bag or potato chips – these are all multi-layer packs – usually with at least 3 layers of materials.
Durability. There are some new flexible packaging solutions coming onto the market which still have barrier liners but only one paper layer. These barrier papers are 100 percent recyclable and chemically treated so that printing inks do no permeate through to the barrier. However, because they have to remain flexible they are also quite lightweight. They are very prone to damage and are not water proof so the product inside can be easily spoiled/contaminated. They are nowhere near as strong as multi-layer/multi-material packs so for heavy bags like Huel that require long shelf life, they would be totally unsuitable.
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