We have made some great progress on our sustainability journey and we are committed to keep improving, while still delivering top quality gardening products to help Kiwis create fantastic gardens. Below are commonly asked questions. You can discover more of our sustainability journey here
What does Carbon Neutral mean?
We have worked with a specialist advisory company to measure and offset the amount of carbon we generate under scope 1 and scope 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
What does Carbon Neutral Packaging mean?
We have reduced the footprint of our Tui growing media and compost bags by moving production from overseas to New Zealand, changing to have 50% recycled plastic and removing the laminate layer. We then had a life cycle assessment of the packaging completed and this was used to calculate the remaining carbon footprint of the packaging. This amount of carbon has then been offset through a conservation project in Southland through www.carbonclick.com/ and an international conservation project through Redshaw Advisors.
Which products have carbon neutral packaging?
Our Tui compost and growing media products are part of this project. You can identify the products by looking for the 50% recycled content icon on either the back or front of pack. We are changing over to the recycled content packaging as the packaging is due to be manufactured. We have completed 96% so far. We have made a number of other packaging improvements which are not part of this project, see the FAQ ‘What other packaging improvements have been made?’.
What other packaging improvements have been made?
We have made a number of other packaging improvements. Examples include: moving our bird seed 10kg bags from woven plastic to paper bags, our Tui Enrich fertiliser pottles changing to 100% recycled plastic and Tui Performance Organics 2.5kg fertilisers containing at least 30% recycled plastic.
Why isn’t all growing media and compost packaging 100% recycled plastic?
The recycled content in the packaging changes the structure of the film, which means it runs differently on our packaging suppliers’ machines and our machines. So far we have had positive results with trials of up to 70% recycled content in our growing media/compost film, so we hope to be able to increase the recycled content to this level in the not too distant future. We will continue to trial increasing percentages of recycled content.
Is compostable packaging an option?
We have reviewed samples of home compostable packaging for our fertiliser products, but so far have not found an option that is suitable in terms of strength and non-tearing characteristics. We will continue to investigate this option as technology changes bring new options. Compostable packaging is not an option for our growing media or compost products as the nature of these products mean they would cause the packaging to compost once filled.
What is the soft plastics recycling scheme?
This is an industry funded scheme which provides drop off points across NZ for soft plastics. Once collected the soft plastics go to future post in Waiuku, and are made into biogro certified organic posts used in a variety of applications.
What is Garden to Table?
Established in 2008, Garden to Table is a charity that works in almost 300 schools supporting close to 14,000 children to learn the key life skills of growing and cooking nutritious meals.