In March this year, Del Currie launched Spudos, which now supplies crisps to more than 65 so-called “zero-waste shops” across the UK and Republic of Ireland, as Suzanne Bearne reports in a news article for the BBC. These are stores that aim to eliminate packaging, and instead encourage customers to turn up with their own containers, which they fill from dispensers.
Purchasers of Spudos flavour and season the crisps in the store, with one of the company’s “Spud Dust” shakers. For internet orders from customers both across the UK and overseas, Spudos packages its crisps and flavourings in packets made from a natural material called cellulose, which is derived from wood pulp. These decompose in about 45 days.
The biggest names in the crisps sector say they will need additional time to switch to more environmentally-friendly packaging. In the meantime, it is smaller crisps firms who are leading the way in terms of more eco-friendly packaging, such as Canadian business Humble Potato Chips, whose compostable crisp packets certified plastic-free.
Back in the UK, Herefordshire-based farmers Sean Mason and Mark Green launched sustainable crisps brand Two Farmers in 2018. Two Farmers crisps are now sold on the Eurostar trains between London and Paris and Brussels, and Mr Mason says they are “in talks to launch in several European countries in early 2023”.
Source: BBC News. Read the full story here
Photo: Credit Del Currie set up his crisps company Spudos after being challenged by his daughter. Credit Credit Del Currie via BBC