A New Zealand commercial organic chicken producer is taking the management of its packaging a step further, offering a free return composting service.
Bostock Brothers created New Zealand's first home compostable meat packaging last year in a move to reduce plastic waste going to landfill.
It is now allowing customers to return the packaging waste to the company for composting.
Bostock Brothers co-owner Ben Bostock said home compostable packaging could be returned in free courier boxes and the company would ensure it was properly composted.
"We will compost the chicken packaging and then use the compost to spread on our maize which we grow and feed back to our chickens.
We grow our own chicken feed, so the compost is really useful, because we don't use compound fertilisers, we use alternatives like compost which is great for soil health too," he said.
He said the new service was useful for people who don't have compost and who wanted to ensure the waste was composted correctly.
Customers haven't wasted any time in getting on board with dozens already registering to receive their return courier box.
"We knew this initiative would be popular but we have been overwhelmed with the daily registrations we are getting since we launched it last week."
Bostock Brothers home compostable packaging material is certified to the European and American composability standards. However, currently in New Zealand there is no official compostable standard.
"We are pro-regulation and would like to see New Zealand quickly develop home compostable standards to.
"We are calling on the industry to regulate so there is some assurance. We are educating consumers ourselves and providing the necessary information they need to dispose of our packaging. It would certainly help if we had better regulation in New Zealand."
Bostock believed the compostable packaging was the way forward with a strong movement to ditch plastic.
"We want to be part of the drive to get rid of plastic. We want to be leaders in our industry. We are passionate about farming sustainably and reducing our environmental impact to meet demand.
"We are confident that this move to manage our own compostable packaging waste will be popular among our environmentally conscious consumers and is a step in the right direction."
