The hot summer has so far been great news for anyone selling cold food and drinks to keep people from overheating underneath the midsummer sun.
Ice cream is always at the forefront of such efforts and while millions of consumers will be enjoying the perfect excuse to indulge themselves and their kids will be in full pester mode (which is tolerable as it gives the adults an excuse for one).
It will also be good for your business, be it a supermarket, café, or mobile van, as you will be doing a roaring trade as people queue for a tub, cone, or lolly.
However, if you are dispensing such large volumes of ice cream you will need both to store it in large amounts to meet demand and also give it to customers in sustainable packaging.
In some cases, people might be going for a cone or wafer, so there will not be anything to be recycled or thrown away. However, ice cream can also be given in tubs, or even in plastic cup-like containers along with a plastic spoon. That can mean lots of plastic waste, usually of the worst (single-use) kind.
Similarly, larger ice cream tubs, sold in supermarkets and dished up in bowls back at home, will almost invariably be made of plastic.
This is a problem when it comes to sustainability. A survey published last year by Greenpeace revealed that just 12 per cent of UK household plastic waste is recycled. 46 per cent is burned in incinerators, 25 per cent goes to landfill and 17 per cent is “dumped on other countries”, which simply means Britain pays someone to put it in landfill there instead.
Most people will, quite rightly, agree that something needs to be done about this. Part of the solution may lie in better recycling, but not all.
Indeed, when then prime minister Boris Johnson said plastic recycling was not the answer before the COP 26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, some were appalled, but many experts (including those at Greenpeace) backed him, noting that there are limits to how much plastic can be recycled.
The best solution is to have sustainable packaging that does not contain plastic to start with. It can easily be recycled but can also be biodegradable, so even in landfill it can do no harm.
According to Treehugger, there are types of ice cream tubs and cartons that can be recycled. Referring to common practices in the US (which can be applied anywhere), these are mainly made from wet strength paperboard, making them recyclable and biodegradable.
The only part this does not apply to is the plastic polythene lining they often have, which may not be recyclable.
We can help provide your business with ice cream tubs that are sustainable and biodegradable, which means you can play your part in preserving the environment while still supplying consumers with lots of lovely cold treats.
If you want your ice cream to be green, you need to do more than just provide it in pistachio and mint choc chip flavours.
