EPT Produce director Wally Di Giosaffate has worked with a local packaging company to find a suitable alternative to the plastic punnets that hold cherry and grape tomatoes. The Perth-based wholesaler said people need to start doing something about the environment.
"There's a lot of grape and cherry tomatoes sold in Australia and that's a hell of lot of plastic," he said. "It's a good feeling to be one of the first cabs off the rank to do [this]."
Although the punnets cost an additional 20 cents, Di Giosaffatte said consumers were generally happy to pay to protect the environment: "If I passed [the cost] onto the grower, it would be about $1 a kilo for them. For someone who grows 150,000 kilos a season, that's $150,000 dollars [they're losing]."
Profile Packaging general manager Brett Kelly said he had not seen this specific design used before in punnets Australia. The challenge was to come up with a sturdy, plastic-free container with ventilation holes in order to preserve the tomatoes for the same amount of time as plastic punnets do. After more than 12 months of tests and trials, the final design has been rolled out in supermarkets across Perth.
Source: abc.net.au