Bread is baked to order – for the smallest corner shop to the largest supermarket – and delivered the next day. Most products are produced in batches and then sold when needed.
Because of its shelf life every product is made daily and delivered direct to store.
Environmental Impact
The baking industry does a lot of work to ensure we minimise the environmental impact of bakery distribution, from modern, low emission vehicles, to efficient routing of vehicles and driver training. Not only that, most of our deliveries take place in the early morning so don’t clog the roads during the day.
The supply of bread can result in lots of food miles – something like 130m miles per annum, but it is only by delivering bread daily to every shop and store that we can get the freshest bread to the consumer.
We also do lots to ensure we minimise the environmental impact of bakery distribution, including modern, low emission vehicles; taller vehicles capable of holding more bread; efficient routing of vehicles and driver training. Not only that, most of our deliveries take place in the early morning so we don’t clog the roads during the day.
It is also worth noting that 80% of UK consumers are within 30 miles of a bakery.
Bread Baskets
The industry also delivers bread in returnable plastic bread baskets which means they can be reused minimising the amount of single use packaging.
The environmental impact arising from the manufacture of an item of packaging becomes less significant the more it is used. Bread baskets meet this criterion.
The introduction of the current legislation on packaging waste has highlighted the environmental advantages of reusable containers for the transport of all types of goods.
The only environmental impact of the distribution of bread by plastic bread baskets is:
- Transport – this is incurred whatever packaging is used
- Basket washing – this is essential in the interests of hygiene and food safety.
To find out more about the industry’s omega bread basket please visit www.bakersbasco.co.uk
Bread Wrappers
The average loaf uses only ~10g of packaging for 800g of bread – this is a tiny proportion of packaging in comparison to most food products and all polythene bread bags can be recycled via retailer carrier bag recycling schemes.
For more information as to where you can do this please visit: https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling