As Plastic Free July kicks off, leading sustainable products business Munch is celebrating a massive plastic-free milestone – 1 million pieces of plastic have been saved from landfill by New Zealanders buying their plastic-free reusable alternatives since the business was established in 2014.

The team now aims to double that amount, targeting two million pieces of plastic to be saved by 2023. Munch continues to offer plastic free alternatives for the kitchen and laundry which are now stocked in every supermarket chain in New Zealand.

Founder and director, Anna Bordignon, says hitting the one million milestone is a Munch customer community achievement.

“By choosing our reusable products over the years, together we have saved all that plastic from being used and sent to the landfill.”

The number of pieces of plastic Munch has saved is an estimate based on the amount of reusable food wraps, snack bags, and other reusable products the business has produced since starting in 2014. Each of those items has replaced thousands of pieces of single use plastic as they are re-used time and again by New Zealand households.

To coincide with the government’s recent announcement to phase out single use and hard to recycle plastics, this month, Munch is holding an industry panel discussion about the future of plastic and plastic alternatives.

The event ‘Plastic! What’s next?’ will be held on Wednesday 7 July at the Munch showroom and head office in Berhampore. The panel will be discussing what’s next for plastic and sharing the actions their businesses are taking and ways the public can get involved.

At the event, Bordignon will discuss her approach to developing more sustainable products and the latest Munch project which is to collect and repurpose silicone in New Zealand. The Silicone Send Back project collects any brand of food grade silicone products no longer being used and is a first project of it’s kind across Australasia to start repurposing post-consumer silicone.

Alongside education and advocacy, Munch products are now found in all supermarket chains across New Zealand and a growing presence in many stores in Australia too.

“Since the beginning, we have focused on bringing fun, useful, quality products out which are affordable for everyday families. It’s important to be appealing and accessible to most people – and to empower them to be more sustainable” says Bordignon.

“Munch customers are helping the planet and also helping people at the same time. As we grow we are able to bring more work to our Home Outwork team in New Zealand who are the makers of many of our core product lines.”