Benefits of Biodegradable Food Packaging for Cafes and Restaurants

Biodegradable and compostable food packaging is experiencing a popularity surge in the takeaway sector.

In recent years, Australian takeaway consumers have become increasingly curious about the benefits of biodegradable packaging. Part of this shift in consumer awareness can be attributed to the media. Additionally, there has been ongoing pressure from the state governments in Australia pushing businesses down the eco-friendly food packaging path as part of their ongoing rollout of the single use plastic bans in each state. The on-flow from this market pressure has been that cafes and restaurants require more quality information to assist them with their decision to move towards biodegradable packaging. 

 

Biodegradable Packaging Benefits 

Biodegradable Packaging can be broadly defined as any packaging that will naturally break down, and produces a negligible impact to the environment throughout its lifecycle. Accordingly, the packaging materials need to produce the least pollution from manufacturing and production through to disposal or recycling and be sourced from renewable resources. An example of such packaging would be a sugarcane bagasse bowl, made from the byproduct of the sugar refining industry which may otherwise have been burned or tilled back into the soil. 

 

Some tangible benefits of biodegradable packaging include: 

  • Measurably decreased carbon emissions during the packaging lifecycle (reduced carbon footprint) 
  • Reduced dependence on fossil fuels 
  • Absence / significant reduction of harmful plastics required for production 
  • Reduction of landfill at end-of-life 
  • Reduction in waste products and chemicals polluting our oceans and land 
  • Contribution towards the mitigation of climate change 

 

Some less tangible benefits of using biodegradable packaging include: 

  • Increased customer goodwill 
  • Improved/modernised packaging look and feel leading to increased sales 
  • Increased sales volumes to a customer base otherwise polarised by their disdain for traditional packaging materials 

 

Popular Biodegradable Food Packaging Lines 

At WF Plastic, we stock in excess of 2,500 lines of disposable food packaging, with nearly 800 of these lines being eco-friendly at the time of writing. The balance of our stock lines continues to shift towards biodegradable packaging almost daily. 

Some of our most popular bio packaging lines just now include: 

 

Benefits of Buying Biodegradable Packaging In Bulk 

When purchasing Biopak and Greenmark disposable food packaging, you’re reducing your carbon footprint and helping us move towards a greener future. Additionally, we pass along some pricing benefits when you buy in bulk. Firstly, you have the ability to leverage our wholesale sliding price scales for a lot of our eco packaging lines. This means that we offer discounts when buying, for example, more than 4 cartons of a product. Each product is different, but we generally offer these sliding price scales as an incentive to buy in bulk and save. 

Further, we offer free shipping deals when buying BioPak and Greenmark lines. For our BioPak biodegradable packaging, you only need to purchase 4 or more items to receive free metro shipping to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. When purchasing Greenmark products, simply buy 5 or more items to receive free shipping to metro Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. 

As a business, purchasing 4 or 5 items is common, and the savings can be beneficial to your bottom line. What’s more, we ship BioPak and Greenmark lines from the warehouse closest to you. This means that, if you’re in Perth for example, you still receive super fast free delivery.

 

Customer Perception 

Whilst branding can’t be overlooked as a critical method to influence customer purchasing decisions, vendors now also need to promote their packaging sustainability credentials through responsible purchasing. Sustainability can impact a customer’s decision to purchase. Moving your business towards biodegradable packaging in Australia will likely shift consumer choice towards purchasing from you as their perception of your business being committed to the circular economy will be obvious. 

Currently the customer base is divided. There are customers whose purchasing decisions aren’t driven by environmental considerations, and customers who consider that packaging should be sustainably sourced. Moving towards sustainable packaging may not affect the decision to purchase for those customers in the first camp. However, it has a very high likelihood of positively influencing the decision to purchase for those customers in the second camp as their perception that your business is committed to biodegradable packaging is reinforced. Conversely, staying with a non sustainable packaging model may drive those customers in the second camp away from your business when they seek to purchase from a competitor committed to the circular economy. 

 

State Legislation Compliance 

The Single Use Plastics Bans continue to roll out in each state of Australia and have been doing so since 2020. The rollouts are being implemented in a phased approach. Each state has its own website specifically addressing their timeline and inclusions for each phase of their bans so it’s important to read up on what is, and what isn’t included in the bans in your state: 

 

NSW 

https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/our-work/environment-heritage/plastics-action-plan/phasing-out-single-use-plastics-in-nsw 

ACT 

https://www.cityservices.act.gov.au/recycling-and-waste/single-use-plastics  

QLD 

https://qldplasticsban.com.au/  

VIC 

https://www.vic.gov.au/single-use-plastics  

TAS 

https://ablis.business.gov.au/service/tas/single-use-plastics/41747  

SA 

https://www.replacethewaste.sa.gov.au/  

WA 

https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-water-and-environmental-regulation/western-australias-plan-plastics-stage-2  

NT 

https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/transforming-darwin/climate-change/reducing-impact/single-use-plastic  

 

It’s important to keep up to date with the single use plastics bans in your state to ensure that your business isn’t using banned packaging. Each state can impose fines for businesses caught using banned packaging products. WF Plastic won’t ship banned products to you. If you’re unsure, contact us for details and the team here will be glad to assist with your decision to move over to biodegradable packaging in Australia.