Zero to Landfill – Re-use, Re-cycle

From early consumer campaigns to encourage re-use and recycling of our iconic jars and bottles, Rick decided to take things further.

Customers had been asking for squeezable sauce bottles for a long time – understandably, as 97% of tomato ketchup bought in the UK is sold in squeezy bottles.

When we launched our squeezy range last year, it was after 4 years finding an ethical manufacturer and working with them to create a 100% recyclable squeezable bottle before giving it the ‘Stokes’ badge of Taste, Quality & Responsibility.

But, as usual for Rick, even that wasn’t enough.

Our latest major achievement is to be the first business to use not just 100% recyclable plastic bottles in our squeezy range, but bottles now made from 100% RECYCLED plastic.

Our new bottles are made from ‘food grade’ recycled PET plastic (rPET) which, of course, is also fully recyclable.

Shredded plastic bottles, pots, tubs etc are broken down and re-manufactured as the raw material for our bottles …

… they had a previous life.

The down side is that this plastic has a slightly darker tinge, giving our sparkling Real Mayonnaise a rather dull look. It’s an inevitable result of using recycled materials.

The taste, texture and quality inside the bottle is still so wonderfully – Stokes – and a little dull packaging is a small price to pay for us to help minimise waste.

More great news is that this ‘rPET’ also has a much lower carbon footprint than virgin PET plastic.

Stokes Tomato Ketchup squeeze is our award-winning ketchup packed with plump, sweet tomatoes that have ripened on the slopes in southern Italy. We gently simmer 200g of these beautiful tomatoes for every 100g of ketchup.

Stokes (Reduced Sugar) Tomato Ketchup squeeze offers the same rich tomatoey joy, crammed with the same ripe Italian tomatoes but with 30% less of the unrefined raw cane sugar used in our award-winning ketchup. Same taste, less waist !

Stokes Brown Sauce squeeze is a truly grownup brown sauce. You can smell the exquisite difference the moment you flip open the lid and squeeze. It is a lush sauce, rich with extra date puree, sweet with black treacle and heady with a unique blend of Persian spices.

Stokes Real Mayonnaise squeeze is really very special. We use only whole eggs from British free-range Welfare Assured hens, into which a very fine rapeseed oil is drizzled to create the product’s core. Then, to make this real mayonnaise stand out from the rest, extra virgin Cretan Koroneiki olive oil is added too.

Stokes Original BBQ Sauce squeeze is thick and smoky with natural blossom honey and molasses-style sweetness. It can be used as an accompaniment, a marinade for BBQ spare ribs or a dipping sauce for juicy BBQ ‘wings’.

In Rick’s own words:

“We are facing a monumental plastic problem on a global scale and our responsibility to do more when it comes to reducing our plastic usage has not gone away. We all have a responsibility to abolish waste in the world and that is our target at Stokes Sauces.

“The new plastic does have a slightly darker tint which, particularly for the mayonnaise, means the product looks a little different. We have had to take a deep breath before making this move and trust our customers to continue to support us, but I can reassure you that the condiments inside remain as delicious as ever. Of course, the plastic we’ve used for the new bottles is completely food grade certified.

“We know we’re doing the right thing by our customers and our planet and continue on a journey to examine every part of how we run our business to minimise our impact as much as possible.”