Media Release
Tip Top, Australia’s favourite bread manufacturer, is doing its bit to tackle the war on waste, by launching their sustainable bag tags in Victoria and New South Wales. This move will eventually eliminate a whopping 400 million pieces of single-use plastic every year as they roll out across Australia and New Zealand.
In an Australian first innovation in 2020, the veteran bakers switched polluting plastic tags for a more eco-friendly, 100 per cent recycled and 100 per cent recyclable cardboard bag tags in South Australia. From today, shoppers in New South Wales and Victoria can buy their Tip Top bread with a clean (and green) conscience, and do their bit to help save the planet — one loaf at a time.
“We’re doing it because it’s simply the right thing to do,” says Graeme Cutler, Director of Sales and CSR Lead at Tip Top ANZ. “We want to be proactive, rather than wait for our customers to ask us to address our waste. And, when it comes to working together as a nation to eliminate single-use plastics, we want to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.”
“Developed after rigorous testing and learning, the sustainable bag tags promise no compromise on freshness and taste,” continues Graeme. “Customers can expect to be provided with the same Tip Top quality — freshly baked every day — that millions of Australians have enjoyed since the bakery began in 1958.”
Following on from its debut in South Australia, the initiative will remove almost 100 million tags across the three states, potentially removing 35 tonnes of plastic tags from entering waste streams.
Tip Top encourages consumers to recycle their cardboard tags in kerbside recycling bins by tucking the tag securely inside other paper or cardboard products, such as an envelope or paper bag, giving them the best chance of being recycled into a new product rather than being sent to landfill.
According to figures from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australians consume roughly 3.5 million tonnes of plastics annually* and Australian households are the largest contributors to this waste.
“Small pieces of plastic such as bread tags are problematic in recycling and waste streams,” adds Rebecca Gilling, Deputy CEO of Planet Ark, Australia’s leading environmental behaviour change organisation. “For this reason, Planet Ark is pleased to see Tip Top designing out waste by replacing plastic bread tags with a circular solution made from 100% recycled cardboard. When recycled correctly, the cardboard will be used again, closing the recycling loop and keeping resources in use.”
The Australian government has plans to phase out “problematic and unnecessary plastics” by 2025, the Victorian Government has committed to ban certain single-use plastic items by February 2023, while the New South Wales Government has plans in place to phase out these plastics from next year. Tip Top has similarly lofty goals.
On top of the Australia-wide rollout of the cardboard tags planned to take place over the next two years, the sustainable bread tags are just the first of a series of packaging innovations under the company’s ‘Feeding Aussie families more sustainably’ vision, including addressing recycling confusion by updating packaging with the Australasian Recycling Label.
“It’s part of the bigger picture for us,” says Graeme of the company’s future ambitions. “Our goal is that by 2025, all Tip Top packaging will be 100 per cent recyclable, reusable, or compostable, to help us close the loop on waste.
Sustainability as you shop. It’s the best thing since sliced bread!
