Local cakemaker ditches plastic

'PICK 'n' mix' cakes in supermarkets made by La Saforbased Vicky Foods will come in 100% biodegradable wrappings by next year, instead of their current individual plastic packaging.

Dulcesol cakes, sold by weight, are hugely popular in many supermarkets, but as each one comes in a separate wrapper, they generate a massive amount of plastic waste.

The manufacturers, Vicky Foods, says their aim is to be plastic-free by summer 2021, and have already started using packaging made from vegetable fibre for their line of organic magdalenas spongecakes.

By the time the change has been fully implemented, around 45 million plastic wrappers and bags for individual and multi-pack cakes will have gone out of circulation, reducing the brand's annual plastic use by 1,200 tonnes.

Vegetable-fibre packaging is made from peel and other residue from crops such as beetroot and potatoes, for example. It looks exactly like clear plastic, but breaks down in landfill and can be used to make compost, meaning they can be deposited in the brown organic waste bins, in places that have these.

They can even be used for compost at home, and are now becoming popular in Mas y Mas stores where the bags for weighting fruit and veg, and packaging for bananas are made from plant fibre.

Even though Dulcesol cakes have been a major plastic generator for many years, Vicky Foods has been working hard on ways to reduce its nonbiodegradable waste, such as using recycled paper where possible instead, and making its plastic wrappers thinner.

Based in Villalonga and

Gandia, Vicky Foods also did its bit during lockdown by sewing thick cotton washable masks and donating one, plus a disposable mask, to every adult resident in Oliva.