Notts.Kitchen is a responsible catering company and we recognise that ours and our vendors activities have an impact on the environment. These impacts arise from ours, and our vendors, consumption of raw materials, energy and water and from our generation of waste and emissions to land, air and water. In order to minimise that environmental impact we are committed to complying with all environmental legislation, regulations and codes of practice relevant to the industry sector in which we operate.

Notts.Kitchen is committed to continual improvement in our environmental performance and minimising waste and any risks our business creates.

We will achieve this by ensuring that all vendors, employees and suppliers understand this policy and the environmental impacts of our business and provide environmental training appropriate to employee responsibilities. We will also ensure any vendor working with Notts.Kitchen uses our packaging formats, or packaging formats with an equivalent environmental standard.  

Notts.Kitchen will actively engage in the following: 

• use recycled and reusable materials where appropriate
• use materials which can be recycled where appropriate
• use renewable resources in preference to non-renewable where available and appropriate 
• make efficient use of natural resources by minimising waste and conserving energy and water
• minimise waste and make efficient use of energy and materials on our sites and in our offices 
• segregate our waste for recycling or reuse whenever conditions permit 
• manage our supply chain to minimise food miles and distribution points
• work with our suppliers to ensure they recognise and reduce the environmental impact of their products and transportation 
• work with our suppliers to recycle packaging 
• work in partnership with our suppliers to ensure effective environmental supply chain management and to promote sustainable sourcing of products and materials 

Notts.Kitchen Packaging

Clearly packaging has a huge impact on the environment. To understand this impact and to minimise it as much as possible, Notts.Kitchen has carried out a study to ensure we are recycling and composting as much of our waste as is feasibly possible. 

This study was carried out with the aim of achieving the following:

• to understand which packaging manufacturers claims were substantiated and could be qualified and quantified 
• to understand which materials gave us the best chance to compost, recycle and reuse 
• to engage with our waste carriers to understand which materials they could handle most efficiently 
• to ensure the quality of our products wasn’t impacted by the packaging products on offer

At the end of this study, we concluded the following:

• Bagasse and paper products which contain no plastics can be locally composted or recycled
• PLA (Polyactic Acid) based plastics, whilst plant based, are not always compostable locally and require specialist treatment 
• PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) and rPet (Recycled Polyethylene terephthalate) are widely recyclable after food use if washed out and send to local recycling facilities (99% of facilities can handle PET/rPET)
• PP (Polypropylene) can be reused and is widely recyclable after food use if washed out and sent to local recycling facilities (99% of facilities can handle PP)

As Notts.Kitchen has a range of needs for cold food, hot food, and food to reheat at home, there needs to be a range of packaging solutions to cover all eventualities.

As a result of the findings Notts.Kitchen has committed to the following:

• to use Bagasse and paper products where possible to allow composting 
• to use PET, rPET and PP where plastics are required to enable local recycling
• to only use PLA in stores (not for delivery) to minimise risks of cross contamination with other recyclable plastics
• to display clear and detailed instructions about what packaging goes into which bins and to publish that information for takeaway customers to increase recycling at home and in the workplace

Notts.Kitchen Supply Chain

At Notts.Kitchen we, and our vendors, source a range of products and raw ingredients which are considered specialist, often these products require a convoluted supply chain to get them to our sites. As the UK is an importer of many food items and does not produce them locally, we accept that we have to import products, however, whilst we accept this, we will continue to manage our supply chain in the most efficient ways possible to ensure we have the least impact we can have, while still offering great quality fresh food.

 To minimise our impact in terms of food miles, and to minimise our overall environmental impact, we are committed to the following strategies:

• to minimise the amount of suppliers who deliver to Notts.Kitchen locations
• to only use companies who offer consolidated supply of relevant goods or use an efficient courier network to minimise vehicle miles 
• to only work with companies who can offer us paperless transactions 
• to only work with companies who have their own environmental policy which they can share and deliver upon
• to only work with companies who manage and maintain an efficient fleet 

We believe that as it is our responsibility to manage our environmental footprint, the above policy manages our footprint as best we can given our desire to maintain our standards utilising the current waste and supply chain infrastructure. We will review and develop our policy as the facilities to do so are more widely available.