No, but we do have a Manifesto (ohhh fancy!!!).(Check out our Harris Farm Sustainability Manifesto here) Sustainable Packaging is one of our Key Objectives in our Harris Farm Sustainability Manifesto. We introduced this officially into our business in 2019 but as our founder, David Harris, always says: "Sustainability has always been a part of Harris Farm”.

We’ve spent a lot of time measuring, cataloguing and trialling the packaging we use for Harm Farm branded products. We took note of the material type, carbon impact and recyclability of each. At last count, 98% of the packaging we use for Harris Farm products is in fact recyclable (See our Packaging Guide for more info).

Now we’re looking ahead to not just make sure our packaging is recyclable but to consider if there are alternative options – such as replacing a plastic content with one that is made from recycled content. Watch this space!

We’re sure you can appreciate there are a few tricky Harris Farm branded products that have packaging that isn’t recyclable. We’re only human – and we’re sure you’d rather your products food safe and shelf stable!!!

We definitely led the way in terms of getting rid of those plastic bags. But, yes, you will still find plastic packaging in our stores. We think plastic is miserable, but unfortunately, some of it is still necessary.

Plastic punnets for the strawberries, for example, come from our amazing growers all over the country. To date, the plastic punnet is the best option for protecting and preventing these beauties from going to waste. This plastic is recyclable, though, so please check out our Packaging Guide for more info.

When we’ve looked at alternatives like compostable packaging, not only do they have a higher carbon footprint, but they can only be properly broken down in a home compost bin or a commercial composting facility that not everyone has access to. Compostables are not meant for landfill, and they can’t go into most council green bins.

We’re keeping a close eye on this space though and have some plans we hope we can share soon!

We have trialled so many different options here and are hopeful we’ve got some exciting news to share soon. The fact is some customers like these bags (odd right?!) – since they can be helpful to keep things together in transit or for picking up dog poop at home…. (Yes, we’ve seen customers use our bag dispensers for their own personal poop scoop supply!!!)

However! Don’t like, don’t use we say! And we welcome you to plonk your fruit and veg basket at the registers for us to unpack and weigh items for you or bring your own reusable net bags. Don’t have any yet? We have them in store or online if you need some,

No matter what, if you do take plastic produce bags – please reuse them! And, when you’re done recycle them into a soft plastics collection if you have a local service available to you. Check out our Packaging Guide to find out how.

We’ve done a pretty good job at this we think – where we can!

Once, we stripped off all the packaging in our Organic section of fruit and veg and instead created tonnes and tonnes of food waste. Woops! Instead, you can now see these items in fridges and with some plastic packaging.

Our Sustainable Packaging Policy also reiterates that if packaging is unnecessary, we won’t use it. We follow a long check list of criteria when considering the best option for delivering fresh fruit and veg to you. The worst result for us and our planet would be for our lovely food to go to waste. So, yes, unfortunately, we can’t go naked all the time.

Packaging does a wonderful job of protecting fruit and veg and preventing it from going “off”. We also created a lot of grief at the check-out, since the Organic options weren’t distinguishable from the conventional fruit and veg – so we gave away a lot of higher priced goodies (Also, Woops!)

Also, when we look at our carbon footprint, packaging only makes up 2% of our impact. So, for us, a much bigger ‘fish to fry’ is addressing the way our food is grown and raised. We believe that this is the way to get carbon out of the atmosphere and combat climate change. Learn more about Regenerative Farming here.

This is a complex space!
First of all, just because a product may say its packaging is compostable, or biodegradable, that doesn’t mean it actually is (Spoiler alert! There are a lot of false claims out there). At Harris Farm, we try really hard to only offer home compostable items (Look out for the code AS5810) if it is industrially compostable, we read this as code for ‘landfill’!

Did you also know that compostable packaging typically has a higher carbon footprint than its counterparts since so much processing is required to make it. And most importantly, if it is compostable, it needs to be disposed of properly, meaning that it must be composted. Do you own a compost bin?! (We hope the answer is yes!)

If you don’t… then your compostable packaging actually goes back into landfill (no matter what it’s made from) where unfortunately doesn’t magically melt back into the earth. Landfills are an oxygen-deprived environment, so with no air supply, the bacterial process needed to break down organic materials doesn’t get activated. So instead of composting and becoming one with the earth again, they rot and emit methane gas. Yuck!
Find out more about composting here.

Keep an eye out on what your local council offers when it comes to help composting – some councils allow you to put your home or industrially compostable items into your garden or organics waste bins. Check before you do so though! Not all councils offer this service yet!

Still have questions? Write to us at hello@harrisfarm.com.au