Sustainability has always been at the core of TasteTech. As our Managing Director, Janis Sinton, said in a recent interview, “From the beginning, we set out to build a business that was sustainable into the future. We’re a family business and we’ve always valued our community.”
One of our current company objectives as part of our 2022-2025 strategy is to reduce the global environmental impact of our site and operating processes. We’re really proud to say that we’ve made great strides in this area over recent years.
Today is World Environment Day, so we’re taking the opportunity to clarify the steps we are taking and what we plan to do next. We know we can always do better.
Reducing Plastic Use
The theme of World Environment Day 2023 is #BeatPlasticPollution. Here at TasteTech, we’ve already taken steps to reduce our plastic use. We don’t purchase single use plastics for the business, and we encourage our colleagues to use reusable water bottles and carrier bags.
Our new bespoke pallet boxes remove the need for that pesky plastic strapping, and they use 50% less cardboard than our old ones. Our shipping boxes now carry a “100% recyclable” message so our customers can dispose of them properly.
Waste Management
For our suppliers, we have carried out a survey to establish the recyclability of their packaging materials. This ensures that we can recycle as much packaging as possible, and better understand where the sustainability issues might be in our supply chain.
We are in the process of taking on MJ Church, a local waste management company based just north of Bristol. They offer transparency about where the waste ends up and can increase our recycling capabilities further. MJ Church also uses electric waste collection vehicles, which are compliant with Bristol’s newly implemented Clean Air Zones.
In our offices and canteen area, we’ve placed colour-coded bins to make it really easy for our colleagues to separate and recycle their waste.
Reducing Water
We regularly clean our machinery to avoid contamination and maintain a high level of hygiene and quality. However, with such big machinery, this process can be very water intensive. We recently implemented a new clean-down system for one of our largest plants, which uses 25% less water and is 3 times faster than the previous system.
Going Paperless
We aim to be a completely paperless site by 2025, and we’ve already implemented a range of measures to help us get there. Many of our HR and QC processes already take place digitally. We’ve also cancelled all print media being sent to TasteTech.
Sustainable Development Goals
Our sustainability goals are aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. There are seventeen goals in total – below are the ones TasteTech is focused on. You can click through to read more about each goal.
Goal 2 – End hunger, achieve food security an improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3 – Ensure healthy lived and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 12 – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
