Our packaging war on waste

Like many of you, after the ABC's #waronwaste campaign and TV show we were horrified. We thought we knew something about responsible disposal of rubbish, but the problems that rubbish is causing were far worse than we imagined. And so we started thinking...

We've already told you about our partnership with The Hills School to compost all our veggie scraps from the kitchen. But we got to thinking about all our other processes. Next up: our packaging.

It's true that styrofoam boxes can be recycled. But making more and more styrofoam is not good for the environment. We were delivering in styrofoam boxes and we figured that had to change.

Enter Woolcool. Woolcool is an environmentally responsible insulation. It can insulate a cardboard box. A cardboard box that can be easily recycled. A cardboard box that can hold all your dinners. AND it outperforms styrofoam for keeping your dinners cold.

Woolcool is, somewhat unsurprisingly, made of sheep's wool. Wool is a sustainable and highly effective insulator (just think of all those sheep in the paddocks in the middle of summer... they're fine!)

We were ecstatic to find an environmentally friendly way of keeping your dinners cold on their way to you. Many of you will have already received your dinners in our new boxes, but for the uninitiated, here's how it works:

• Your dinners will arrive in a cardboard box, lined with Woolcool liners and icepacks.
• The cardboard box can be flattened and recycled. You may also choose to make a billy-cart out of it.
• The plastic coverings on the woollen liners can be removed and placed in the plastic bag recycling bins at your local supermarket.
• The woollen liners themselves can be put in your compost bin. They also make excellent pet bedding... but not for your goldfish.
• The plastic pouches and bags that your dinners are sealed in can be washed and dried and also placed in supermarket plastic recycling bins. Arguments about which of your junior recipe testers is going to put the plastic bags into the bin this time may be adjudicated at your own discretion.
• The icepacks are excellent for picnic-ing and keeping things cold. When you don't want to use them anymore, pierce the plastic bag and squeeze the non-toxic gel down the sink. The bag goes into the supermarket bag recycling. This has the added benefit of facilitating another argument in front of the bag bin.