PACKAGINGand sustainability
FANTASTIC FOIL – The Benefits of Using Foil Packaging Many people don’t know that aluminium foil is 100 percent recyclable and recycling it saves 95 percent of the energy required to produce aluminium from raw materials. Depending on your location within New Zealand, the local council by-law does allow for foil to be recycled, so long as it has been cleaned of food/grease.
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he environmental impacts of aluminium foil are also dramatically less than other packaging materials. Aluminium foil in landfill is virtually non-toxic. It’s inert and will eventually oxidise to aluminium oxide, without emissions of gas or pollutants. It also adds no poisonous compounds to the soil and ground water.
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SUPPLEMENT 2022
How to Recycle Foil • Rinse or wipe off any crumbs or food residue from foil trays. To rinse just dunk the tray in the washing up water - no need to run the tap. • Scrunch kitchen foil, tub and pot lids and wrappers together to form a ball - the bigger the ball, the easier it is to recycle. As well as foil, you can usually recycle these other aluminium items: • Drinks cans • Screw top lids from wine bottles (recycle with the bottle - the cap can be left on) • Takeaway containers and barbeque trays.
Want to know if it’s really foil? Do the scrunch test! Do the scrunch test to check whether your shiny wrapper is aluminium foil or plastic film: scrunch the wrapper in your hand - if it springs back open it’s not recyclable foil. H
