"We pledge to be plastic-free by the end of 2026."

The food industry can be a wasteful place. Both in terms of unused food and ingredients, to single use plastics and shipping and logistics. Since 1985, we’ve been proud to offer made to order meals, which minimises food wastage, and only use Australian fruit and veg, minimising shipping emissions - but we know that there’s significant work to be done reducing our plastic.

So we’ve prepared a big challenge for ourselves.

Our journey to now has been one of testing and learning, both our internal processes and the evolving landscape and technological advances around us.

The ultimate goal of becoming entirely kerbside compostable has been a tough one, with a scarcity of economically viable solutions available to a company of our size, as well as challenging legislation on the issue.

However, we now have a clear roadmap to help us achieve our goal, and it starts with our most recent development, our new look meal trays.

A which will reduce on average 250g of plastic waste per IKU delivery.

Our Plastic-Free Runway to 2026

• Feb 2025
  Meal Trays:
  Change from polypropelene to lined bagasse (a compressed sugar cane mulch), significantly reducing the overall plastic within the container. This will be lined with a removable recyclable thin layer of film to protect the organic matter. 
  
  

  Bagasse is an excellent choice for sustainable packaging—completely plastic-free, rapidly renewable, and low in carbon footprint. As a by-product of the sugar-refining industry, it’s both eco-friendly and highly functional—strong, rigid, moisture-repellent, and safe for use in the fridge, freezer, and microwave.
  
  

• Mid 2025
  Meal Trays:
  Replace the lined bagasse with a totally unlined bagasse and certified plastic free tray. This will mean the entire unit will be kerbside compostable.

• Salad packs: 
  Undergoing the same transition as the meal trays, they will move to lined bagasse first, before then evolving to fully recyclable bagasse.
  

• Mid 2025
  Soups:
  Transferring our plastic soup pouches to re-useable and recyclable glass jars.
  
  

• Early 2026
  All insulation and cooling blocks:
  Swapped from plastic to biodegradable alternative.
  
  

The Benefits:

Plastic is polluting the planet, endangering our wildlife and infiltrating our own human bodies. Its key properties as a packaging solution - sturdy, cheap, waterproof - are the exact properties which mean it’s a scourge for our environment.

With IKUs new meal trays we’ll remove approximately 250g plastic from each delivery, totalling 5.2 tonnes of plastic reduced on average each year.

Challenges:

Any target such as this will be faced with challenges and we will also be upfront about these. One of the reasons is that we’d like to help guide other similar companies through the process and share our learnings, hoping that more will follow.

We’ll share updates through our social media channels, this editorial page - The Digest, and through our ongoing customer communications.

We know this is an ambitious target, but at IKU we are ambitious about minimizing our impact on the planet.

How You Can Support:

Beyond your valued attention on the topic, you can help by continuing to recycle, and being up to date on what we can actually recycle (see here for NSW residents).

Provide your feedback on our packaging updates as and when you start to see them in your order. Did it live up to the usual IKU standards? Was it better? How did you feel about receiving more environmentally friendly offering from us?

Your valued feedback will be heard and help make us better.