Sustainability Archives - Jack and Co Food Stores

Business Sustainable Practices

Sustainability / Jack & Co Marketing / November 8, 2022

At Jack & Co, we want to be a positive contributor to healthy outcomes for the planet through our business and all our operations. From how we serve our products, to how we treat our waste, our Sustainability Goals will drive the next decade of activities to ensure we leave a better planet for future generations.

How are we doing this?

Maximising food recycling through food diversion programs such as feeding the homeless in Sydney.

Redirecting left over bread to the cows in the Manning Valley.

Separating and recycling our waste where possible. Milk cartons are put in a separate bin and at our Pymble store the local school collects the milk bottle tops and creates “Planet Pens” from the plastic.

Phasing out all single use plastics. Using paper bags and encouraging customers to place multiple items in one bag.

Encourage customers to bring in their keep cups for hot drinks to reduce number of disposable cups.

Selling reusable shopping bags.

Minimising carbon pollution through installation of solar energy, replacing lighting with energy efficient alternatives and minimising power usage outside of trading hours.

Our Taree florist has started to use composable wrapping on her flower bouquets rather than cellophane that takes many years to break down.

Our high level Sustainability goals are to:

phase out all single use plastics by 2023
50% reduction in carbon use by 2030
80% reduction in landfill contribution by 2025
Carbon Neutral by 2035.

We are always looking at ways to make our business more sustainable and will update this blog as we find and implement new practices.

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Planet Pens – Recycling of bottle caps into pens

At Jack & Co, we’re really conscious of our environmental footprint and have set ourselves sustainability goals to drive our actions in to the future. When the kids at the Northside Montessori School contacted us to ask for our used milk bottle lids, we were really delighted to hear that there was a new use for recycling of bottle caps into pens and help save the planet.

The Year 7 students at Northside Montessori school have been collecting milk bottle lids for couple of months at our Pymble store. The students have sorted the HDPE plastic lids, melted them, shaped them with a lathe and recycled them into pens. They have called their student run enterprise ‘Planet Pens’ with proceeds going to environmental charities and back into the business.

They also recently entered the Young Environmental Leaders category of the Keep Australia Beautiful Awards and were chosen as the winner from a simple concept of recycling of bottle caps.

Below is the video that the students put together as part of their award submission.

There is so much about this project that we love. Not only are the local kids repurposing waste by recycling of bottle caps into reusable goods, but they have shown their entrepreneurial spirit and donated the funds to Planet Ark. Well done!