I actually store my Huel in a large resealable coffee can (commercial size holds an entire bag). It’s ideal - it keeps light out and is air-tight.
The only issue I can think of is transportation - tins / cans are heavier (significantly so when transporting thousands, but even significantly heavy enough that it might cause issues with DPD aswell for smaller local deliveries).
As well as the weight issue, cans take up space. Square ones would resolve this issue to some extent as they could be stacked more efficiently, but they still take up more space than bags.
When thinking of environmental impact, you need to consider the full picture. Although cans can be recycled, if they have a larger carbon footprint to make, fill, seal, and transport, it would cancel out any benefit of being able to recycle the end product.
I don’t know for sure that transporting cans would have a larger carbon footprint but I’m guessing it would…
This manufacturer of similar style, but not meal replacement product is moving towards plastic free packaging.
Their new distribution centre is less than a mile from my house ( and my locale features in the opening shot of their promotional video).
weird that they would want to base themselves on a rocky outcrop in the middle of nowhere, but there you go.
I’ve never actually tried their products…cos they wouldn’t let me pick some up even though it is 5 minutes walk away,.[I mean I was gonna pay for it not expect a freebie…but ho hum.]and they don’t come in 1.75kg bags either, but fair play to them for addressing the issue.
Nice one hunzas good to read there addressing the problem even the scoop,
But what about the scoops?
Before our move towards home compostable packaging could be completed there was one last thing we had to address.
If you’ve placed an order recently you may have already noticed that we now no longer include plastic scoops inside the pouch. This was the last bit of plastic we had left in our business and decided that the most effective solution was to remove them entirely.
Within the next few weeks we will be offering a re-usable bamboo scoop on our website which you can buy once and use forever. We’ll also plant a tree for every scoop sold on our website.
I was checking one of my kitchen drawers the other day and I had over a dozen scoops of various sizes from protein powders and the like…and ive disposed of or broken many more.
Interestingly i found a scoop that holds 50g of Huel…and i tested it numerous times with my scales…and 2 level scoops came to within a gram or 2 of 100g each time. Just right.
@Tim_Huel How come Vivo manages to use compostable packaging ? Their powder also contains nutrients. I’m not sure about the shelf life of the product though…
It doesn’t look like they’re using that packaging yet. Their website doesn’t mention it anywhere.
I wonder if they hit a snag since they did that Kickstarter. They must have thought it was viable so hopefully they figure it out, and other companies join in.
They’re making some pretty disingenuous claims and not really producing anything new. They allude to their packing being plastic free – it isn’t – it’s just bio plastic (Polylactide acid (PLA) as opposed to petrochemical based - which is increasingly widely available. They also skirt over the composting part.
Bio plastics can be home composted under very specific conditions – they must be exposed to both air and heat to degrade, if they don’t – if they get covered and compacted for instance – they will never breakdown. This means that due to the time it takes if they find their way to a landfill rather than a dedicated composting facility – it’s unlikely they will breakdown. They must also not be introduced into a regular plastic recycling chain.
The pouches are also very small not much bigger than a flavour boost pouch and as a single walled bag, it’s unlikely they could take any significant volume of product or provide gas and light barriers.
Crazy to believe anyone on Kickstarter would mislead you – but there you go
I dunno @Phil_C. I found them talking about it on their YouTube channel and they talk about it in more detail. Seems like they’ve got it figured out and are just a bit slow rolling it out.
You have to cut them up and put them with food waste.
Hi David - lots of plastics companies are doing this - yes cutting them up will speed up the composting but still cannot be compacted or sealed (like in a drum composter). the problem with a single wall pack like this is strength and barrier protection - they will be fine for a limited shelf life but not a long term one such as Huel products.
The most promising products using these plastics are hybrid ones that have bioplastic outers which can be dissolved with foil inners to provide the barriers and strength.
On their own - bio plastics are better suited to jars and pots for short shelf life foods and drinks.
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