Five years after prompting Convex New Zealand to develop home compostable produce bags, Jenny Lux is still using the bags to pack her certified organic produce and encouraging other market gardeners to use them as well.

A long-time advocate for organic and sustainable agriculture, Jenny approached Convex for a home compostable bag for her delicate greens in 2018. This led to the development of EcoClear™ produce bags, which are now used across New Zealand by market gardeners wanting to avoid plastic packaging.

This is good news for Jenny who is the chairperson of the New Zealand Soil & Health Association and the Managing Director and Head Gardener at Lux Organics.

Based in Ngongotaha, near Rotorua, Lux Organics grows certified organic vegetables, microgreens, and herbs for their local market. Lux Organics sells direct to consumers through their weekly fresh vege box subscriptions and through the Brown Owl Cooperative retail outlet. They also supply fresh produce and microgreens to a growing number of Rotorua restaurants.

Jenny says, “Our aim is to provide our local community with fresh, nutritious food with the lowest possible carbon emissions and waste. Sometimes lettuce and other sensitive produce needs to be bagged and we dislike using plastic. EcoClear is the most reliable bag that we’ve found that is actually home compostable. It’s great for transporting fresh produce and keeping things safe and contained. We use it for lettuce, herbs, microgreens and sometimes even beetroot. I think it’s an ethical choice and that’s why I recommend it to other growers.”

Jenny has encouraged many other growers and market gardens around New Zealand to start using EcoClear bags and is keen to see some larger businesses using them.

She says, “We order around 10,000 EcoClear bags a year, and we’re just a small family farm. Just imagine how much plastic would be saved if bigger salad growers used compostable bags?”

The base raw material used to make the EcoClear bags is certified to the European and Australian home compostable standards: OK Compost Home and AS5810.

Although Jenny is not able to use compost made from packaging in her certified organic market garden, she is happy to use it in the gardens she uses for home purposes. She composts all her waste EcoClear in a separate compost pile, and also composts used bags returned from customers who aren’t able to compost them themselves.

Jenny says, “We’re really grateful that Convex developed a bag that people can compost at home. Convex is amazing. They are great with customer service and very responsive. We also love how they support small businesses like ours by allowing us to order as many as we need, when we need them.”

“We have a good collaborative relationship with Convex and really appreciate how well they try to meet the needs of New Zealand industries.”

Visit Lux Organics at: luxorganics.co.nz or facebook.com/luxorganics

Learn more about EcoClear here: econicpackaging.com