Eco foodservice packaging manufacturer Vegware celebrates compostables for Global Recycling Day 

Just in time for Global Recycling Day on 18^th March 2020, Vegware – the global specialist of plant-based compostable packaging – shares news of their continuous growth including how they have helped Scottish clients boost recycling. This comes alongside the company’s booming sales growth, expansion of their office space and increased Vegware composting collection routes to deliver more zero-waste solutions to clients. 

From its start in June 2017 to the end of 2019, Vegware’s Close the Loop composting collection service has composted the equivalent weight of 16.8 million disposable coffee cups. Additionally, the sales of this Edinburgh-based exporting SME have doubled in the last two years, with exports now accounting for a third of their sales. This exceptional growth is due to the public’s continuing preference for plant-based alternatives to conventional plastics.  

Vegware’s range of over 350 plant-based catering disposables offers the full solution to any site looking to join the circular economy. Vegware’s Waste Management Consultants work with the UK waste sector to provide composting collection services for clients. This includes their own award-winning Close the Loop service, that offers a zero-waste solution to Scottish businesses for catering disposables.

Started in 2017, in their home turf, the ‘Close the Loop’ service collects used Vegware disposables and food waste from business across Scotland, taking it to industrial composting. In under 12 weeks, used Vegware turns into soil improver for Scottish fields, to feed the next generation of plants.  

Annalise Matthews, Vegware’s Waste Management Consultant, explains: “We believe that every foodservice business should have access to composting. With Vegware’s Close the Loop service, our clients get piece of mind, knowing that their waste is being processed correctly. It’s a win-win.”  

Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh’s 5-star visitor centre, is among businesses already benefiting from the Scottish service. Within their first 5 months on the Close the Loop service, Dynamic Earth recycled 1.38 tonnes of used Vegware and food scraps – that’s the equivalent of over 106,000 8oz coffee cups. 

Their Café Manager, Susan Paton, said: “I was keen on Vegware from the start. The plant-based products were presented as a practical solution: the wide and versatile product range could support Dynamic Earth for the long-term.”  

In addition to their Close the Loop service, Vegware works with the waste sector to actively grow trade waste collection routes around the UK. Now, there are Vegware-approved trade composting collections for 70% of the populated areas within the UK, including Oxford, Cambridge, Reading, Guildford, Basingstoke, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, York, Nottingham, Shropshire, the Isle of Man, most of Northern Ireland, and a pilot scheme in London. 

To keep up with product demand, Vegware Edinburgh headquarters has grown and expanded into the building next door. A 4,000sq ft property on Edinburgh’s illustrious Melville Street, an avenue for business and development in the West End. Vegware moved to their first Melville Street property in February 2018 when their staff numbers outgrew their previous premises in neighbouring Polwarth. 

“Our staff have settled in quickly to the new offices which provide them with a creative, entrepreneurial, and flexible working space that allows them to grow and develop with the business,” shares Simon Tracey, Human Resources Manager. 

This space expansion joins their three warehouses, situated in mainland Europe, the UK and the US. These hubs service Vegware clients in 70 countries worldwide.