Sustainability Playbook 2022

Many of the world’s leading companies are taking a proactive approach, setting targets and taking action to become more sustainable. It’s a wise move, given the pending expansion of federal legislation surrounding single-use plastics, and equally proactive moves by municipalities to reduce problematic plastic waste.

Bunzl’s sustainability program is designed to help educate our customers on reducing their environmental footprint, including greenhouse gas emissions and risks to human and environmentally health.

Use this Sustainability Playbook to help you evaluate existing packaging materials, explore more sustainable alternatives and determine the best product/purpose fit to maximize performance and minimize environmental impact. Check out our Sustainability Playbook to learn more about:

Federally Banned Single-Use Plastics

Recently enacted federally-legislated single-use plastic product category bans have marked an end to certain product types commonly used within the foodservice industry, including cutlery, straws, stir sticks, check-out bags, six pack rings and some problematic foodservice containers.

In response to these bans, manufacturers have haulted production of foodservice plastics identified in the bans, which could significantly impact access to certain products moving forward. Avoid being left empty-handed – use our Sustainability Playbook to help select more sustainable packaging substrates.

Understanding Plastic Packaging

Decode plastic packaging by learning how to use resin codes to identify different plastic types and how to recycle them, as well as helpful examples of common plastic products.

Sustainable Materials 101

There’s no shortage of alternatives to help reduce the use of plastic. The trick is to understand what the alternatives are, when they represent a greener product choice – and when they may not. What’s trickier is that the terms that describe these alternatives are often used interchangeably, when they have very different meanings.

We break down some of the most common: recyclable, reusable, oxo-biodegradable, compostable and biodegradable in an easy-to-ready chart to help sort through it.

• Sustainability