apetito has won a prestigious innovation award for a plastic tray recycling initiative.

The care home meals provider scooped the prestigious national RECOUP Award for the Best Development/Innovation to Enhance Plastic Products for Recyclability or Re-use for its Boomerang initiative.

Lee Sheppard, director of corporate affairs, policy and sustainability, said: “We’re delighted to have been recognised in this way for our Boomerang initiative as for us, it’s all about doing business ‘the right way’. “

RECOUP’s Plastic Recycling Annual Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in plastics resource efficiency and recycling, to champion leading a more a circular plastics value chain.

apetito’s Boomerang initiative sought to address the number of plastic trays that the company delivers to customers that ultimately were going into kerbside recycling.  In 2021, it launched the world’s first industrial scale, closed loop system, whereby its Wiltshire Farm Foods’ customers could hand back trays to its drivers. All of those trays were guaranteed to be recycled and turned into completely new trays.

Since then, more than 15 million trays have been returned and recycled into new trays and the company has extended its initiative into the healthcare sector working with the NHS and with hospital caterers across the UK.

Sheppard added: “We guarantee to recycle 100% of the trays we collect into new trays right here in the UK; compare that to household recycling where unfortunately nearly half of what you put into kerbside collections actually gets sent abroad for processing, with questionable results.

“Every member of our team believes passionately in making a real difference, and the success of Boomerang is testament to the commitment we have all made.”