You have probably noticed that there are fewer plastic bread tags on bags of bread as several companies have now changed over to cardboard tags. George Weston Foods alone replaced 18 million plastic tags with cardboard in 2021 and aims to switch 75 million by the end of 2022.
Although this is a big step forward, there are a couple of things you need to know about how to keep the new cardboard tags out of landfills.
Cardboard tags can go into your curb side recycle bin, however they need to be put into something larger, like an envelope, scrunched up newspaper or a flattened box that they can’t fall out of. This gives them the best chance of being recycled as it prevents them from being lost during transportation or missed during processing.
They are so small that they need to be consolidated before being recycled and not just tossed into the recycling bin. The best way to do this is to set aside an envelope to collect your tags, when the envelope is full seal it and place it in your recycle bin.
The other option is to compost the tags, George Weston Foods have stated that the dies used to print on their tags are water based and therefore safe for your home compost pile or bin. I’m not sure how long they take to break down as yet – this will depend on what sort of composting system you have – mine is a rotating compost bin. I have placed a couple of tags in and will see what happens when I take the compost out in a few months time.
If you do come across any plastic tags (there were still a lot on bread at my local supermarket) please collect them and once you have a decent pile sort them into colours and send into your local bread tag collection hub so that they can be recycled and made into other products. There are now two companies in New Zealand making products from plastic tags.
PLASTIC BREAD TAGS ARE NO LONGER BEING COLLECTED BY BREAD TAGS FOR WHEEL CHAIRS IN NEW ZEALAND
For the range of George Weston Brands click here.
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