Waitoa wins with innovation in sustainable packaging

Plastic waste is one of the major environmental issues the world is facing, and our Waitoa team is focused on finding a sustainable solution to ensure we’re responsibly packaging our free range products.

In collaboration with Sealed Air, a new innovative design has allowed us to make our Waitoa Butterflied Bird bags with 80% recycled plastic, significantly reducing the need to use virgin plastic in our packaging. With plastic sourced from both post-consumer and industrial sources, the bag’s design also increased the shelf life of the product by 40%, now up to 21 days, helping to reduce food waste.

This new packaging has now won three awards; the 2022 New Zealand Pride in Print Award, the 2022 Australian Institute of Packaging Save Food Packing Design of the Year Award and the international 2023 WorldStar Global Packaging Award, which recognises the best of the best in packaging innovations from across the globe.

With the plans to move the 80% recycled plastic film across its soft plastic packaging, the brand’s total plastic packaging will have an average of 77% recycled content. This will save 50 tonnes of virgin plastic from being produced each year. Furthermore, this packaging can be recycled again through the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme available across New Zealand.

Combined with our Toitū Net Carbonzero certification, Waitoa free range chicken is continuing the journey to produce sustainable chicken for New Zealanders.