Many people assume that paper is more eco-friendly, but it’s not very efficient for packaging – it splits easily, isn’t waterproof, has a shorter shelf-life and is heavy to transport, so uses more CO2 as it requires more lorry loads. In fact, if the whole world used paper packaging, there wouldn’t be enough land to grow the trees that make paper! For now, plastic is the best thing we have until something better is designed.

Plastic packaging protects products for much longer than paper and is only really a problem if it ends up in hedgerows or in the sea – often because people don't recycle properly. For example, if someone leaves their sandwich in the wrapper, the packaging can’t be recycled as it’s now contaminated.

Like many other retailers, we recycle our plastic packaging and shrink wrap. As long as it’s clean, it’s sent to our warehouse, where it’s compressed into 1.5 metre cubed bales, then collected by a waste transfer company to be made into more plastic. It’s a totally circular process. The plastic doesn't go anywhere near the sea or hedgerows, and it’s quite frankly, a very wonderful system.

When products are delivered to stores, they arrive shrink-wrapped on plastic pallets. Because they travel a long distance, they need to be protected, otherwise the pallets will collapse and items will get dirty and broken. However, the shrink wrap and pallets are fully recyclable.

Our approach has been to try and design packaging for the real world. The reason why our pet food comes in plastic recyclable bags is because we can collect the bags, and turn them into bales, ready for processing into other plastic products.

Carrier bags often get used for putting yucky things in, so making them recyclable is pointless. Instead, ours are compostable. As a business, we’re working through all the products we use and sell, and trying to make them fully recyclable or compostable. We apply common sense to decision-making and never get our facts from Instagram!

Compostable bags are better than non-recyclable plastic bags because if they end up in landfill, or in a hedge or the sea, they’ll break down quickly. But if they’re put in mixed recycling, they can’t be recycled and or composted on an industrial scale. For example, if you mix compostable packaging with your organic waste, such as carrot and potato peelings, the waste handlers will incinerate the whole lot rather than separating your rubbish. The onus isn’t on the waste handlers to sort our laziness. We aren’t aware of any local councils who compost packaging, so assume it’s all sent to landfill or incineration sites.

You can't put compostable packaging in industrial composters because they compost at a completely different rate to organic waste such as potato peelings. Although it sounds great in theory, compostable packaging isn't that great from a recyclable, reusable perspective. We should be reusing packaging, not producing it, and then discarding it.

It’s not cost effective for waste collectors in the Western world to sort through other people’s rubbish, so if the recycling isn’t separated, the rubbish might be shipped to developing countries for ‘recycling’ where labour is cheaper and environmental standards are lower. It’s often then discarded in landfill sites, where plastic and toxins make their way into coastal waters. So please, please separate and clean your rubbish correctly.

Yes, it is! If we all sorted our rubbish better, it'd be much easier for the authorities here to process it, and less likely for it to be sent somewhere else where people care less about the environment, particularly because putting food on their plates is more important.

If individuals in this country recycled more passionately and carefully, the UK recycling industry would flourish, it would be better of the environment, and we wouldn’t need to send our rubbish to other countries, which I believe is immoral.