As part of a pioneering move to reduce plastic waste, the Guardian\u2019s print edition will no longer be sold in plastic packaging. Behind the scenes, the team behind this big change were Richard Furness, managing director of reader revenue and publishing, Mylene Sylvestre, director of publishing, Roger Clapham, head of supply chain, and Dave Kirwan, the production director for publishing. Here they explain how they did it.<\/p>\n
How did the idea for a compostable wrap come about?<\/p>\n
Richard We are in a constant, inquiring conversation with our readers about what they\u2019d like to see from us, and the genesis of this project really came from conversations with them in which they asked how we might adapt our product to be more environmentally friendly. We introduced polybagging about 20 years ago, when our weekend edition started to get bigger and bulkier with extra supplements. It was the only way we could get them out on time and guarantee they would survive the British weather! Over time we tried to improve the plastic we were using, making it thinner, more recyclable, etcetera, but it was still plastic, and still not good enough.<\/p>\n
It took a bit of time to get the project off the ground \u2013 we are always very conscious of balancing commerciality with our values. It\u2019s clear 2019 is a hugely important year in terms of cutting plastics use across the board. It felt urgent, so we didn\u2019t want to wait for regulation or wait and hope someone else solves the problem.<\/p>\n
Dave Last year we used approximately 25 tonnes of plastic for wrapping, which is about half a tonne a week. We knew we had to find an alternative. The newsprint we use for newspapers, however, is more than 70% recycled, and sourced in a way that retains biodiversity, which is really important to us. The new compostable wrapping film we now use is made from waste potatoes left out of the food chain in Eastern and Northern Europe, it is processed to release the starch and manufactured into granules.<\/p>\n
Mylene The decision to do away with our plastic wrappers came at a time when the Guardian was trying to cut costs, and when we had just completed a transition to the new tabloid format, so it had to be as inexpensive as possible. In the end, the overall wrapping cost has gone up a little, but we see it very much as an investment and decided to invest in compostable wrapping despite increasing our operations costs.<\/p>\n
Why did you settle on potato starch?
\nMylene It\u2019s been about 10 months in the making, all told. We needed something that could be produced quickly for each edition, so as not to delay distribution of the paper. We originally tried to move to a paper substitute for the wrapper, but found that it wouldn\u2019t stand up against the elements too well, so wouldn\u2019t be suitable for home deliveries. It was actually our environment journalists who suggested we try potato starch \u2013 a material they had seen being used by the RSPB, the National Trust and others.<\/p>\n
Richard It\u2019s been really fascinating to learn about the process. Our early prototypes underwent intensive tests to see how quickly they could move through the printing presses, how the text looked, how robust it was. We discovered we were only allowed to have ink covering a maximum of 5% of the surface of the wrapper in order to keep it compostable, so that was a challenge too.<\/p>\n