Made to measure: How we're rethinking our packaging

As a company of nature lovers with a dedicated customer base of wild bird and pet devotees, a commitment to caring for the environment is sown into our origin story. 

It was essential then, that we take genuine, measurable action to reduce the amount of packaging waste going to landfill. To keep us on track, we set a target of all our packaging being 100% recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. With some significant swaps made recently, we’re now sitting at a healthy 72%. 

On the packaging front, we have now moved all our 1kg, 2kg and 5kg clear bags to a soft plastic that is recyclable in many areas around New Zealand.  

Our 5kg Wild Bird Seed, 20kg Scratch & Lay and 10kg rabbit pellets have moved from plastic to multi walled paper bags. This caused some initial teething issues, as without the ‘give’ of plastic, the paper sacks need to be handled a little more gently. However, a few simple reminders around processing inward stock has this under control, and we know the benefits make the extra care well worthwhile. 

Adding compressed hay to our ranges of feeding hay for rabbits and guinea pigs has also allowed us to reduce plastic going to landfill. 50L of hay stuffed into a 12L bag is pretty impressive to witness! We also now offer compressed Timothy and Meadow Hay in cardboard boxes, a fully recyclable (or compostable) option.  

As a trial we sent out our Seed Cones and Coconut Feeders ‘nude’ but free-loading wild birds (gotta love them!) made this untenable. Instead, we shifted to a soft plastics recyclable bag in place of the previous shrink wrap, with a new cardboard label. 

We also switched to compostable cellophane film bags for our Energy Cakes, Poultry Pecker, Meadow Medley, Timothy Cakes, and Parrot Picks. Hound refill packs are also compostable, making treat-giving a guilt-free process (your dog told us to write that part). 

Wild Bird Nectar, The Pick and Hound Snack Packs are also contained in soft plastic recyclable bags. To ensure the entire package is recyclable, we have also ensured labels are recyclable throughout our range. 

Our Wild Bird Energy range was moved to sugar cane trays some time ago, and we changed our Gourmet Hanging Treats and Hen Health Tonic pottles to a bioplastic.  

Around Topflite HQ, we’ve made changes to our internal systems to reduce waste too. To help us keep track and celebrate our progress, we now use a system to monitor our internal waste and measure how much we eliminate over time through our processes. It shows that since our recycling system updates in 2021, we have recycled a huge 26.2 tonnes of cardboard and 14.9 tonnes of plastic film.  

All these moves are helping us to meet our target – but we’re not stopping there. As new and improved methods of packaging come onto the market, we will keep making changes and improving our product packaging. Watch this space!