Need catching up? Here's part 1 of the 'our commitment to sustainability' blog - www.mountzeroolives.com/blogs/179/our-commitment-to-sustainability
When you're one of the oldest Olive Groves in Australia, there is an elevated level of responsibility to look after your land and the land around you. Before Jane & Neil Seymour purchased Mount Zero Olive Grove in the 1990s, it was not the bio-dynamic, functioning farmland that exists today.
Our next challenge is to develop initiatives across the rest of the business that builds on the amazing work of Jane and Neil at the Mount Zero olive grove.
Our sustainability focus this year, has been to limit our packaging waste. So we've set out to search for 'greener' options for all of our products.
So here's just some of the initiatives we've been working away at this year:
Warehouse Market and Friday Open Days
Our biggest sustainability success this year has been the ongoing and overwhelming support for our Zero Waste Warehouse Market. We are coming up to our 6th quarterly Market on November 30th (event page) and we've estimated that as a result of the previous five events, approximately 5000 glass olive oil bottles, 2500 glass jars (olives) and roughly 2400 plastic pulse and grain bags were prevented from entering the system. Our market days have shown us, that by joining together and changing our behaviours as a community, we can make a tangible difference. Thanks to all those who have come along and shown your support!
Stainless Steel Olive Oil Containers
To try and encourage re-usable containers in hospitality and foodservice, this year we launched our new stainless steel containers, to hold our extra virgin olive oil. We have made these available to our industry customers, launching a closed-loop and waste-free, food delivery system with legendary Melbourne restaurants Vue De Monde, The Stokehouse and Oakridge some of the first to embrace the initiative.
Home Compostable Pulse and Grain Bags
For the past 12 months we have been busy searching for an alternative packaging solution for our pulses and grain range, in an effort to reduce our plastic footprint. We weighed up the options between recyclable, biodegradable, compostable and returnable. We concluded that a certified home compostable film was the best fit for packaging our grains & pulses going forward. This film is made from 100% renewable plant based material (starch and cellulose) and will breakdown to worm & garden food within 90 days in a home compost.
To us, this is a more sustainable solution than investing in recyclable materials as in Australia right now, we cannot guarantee the reliability of the recycling system from council to council.
With this compostable film, if you do not have a home compost, you can place it into your green bin as it is biodegradable and will breakdown. But why not use this as an opportunity to start your own home compost bin or worm farm?
These are but a few of the initiatives we have been working on this year to lessen both our plastic and carbon footprints, however there is still a long way to go in our business and in the community generally. We want to thank you for your support and loyalty, as readers of our blog and customers alike. We hope that you join us in our drive to a more sustainable food packaging and delivery system.
