Waddington Europe, a division of US carrier bag specialist Novolex (Hartsville, South Carolina; www.novolex.com), has launched a punnet with its new “Monoair” cushion technology, which is said to eliminate the need for extra bubble padding to protect soft fruit.

Traditionally, punnet bases have required a layer of bubble padding attached with an adhesive to stop the bruising and spoiling of soft fruit in transit. However, such padding must be removed from the container to be properly recycled. The Monoair cushion is integrated into the base of Waddington’s 100% recycled PET punnets. The company says consumers can simply throw the whole punnet into the recycling bin without worrying about first separating the bubble padding.

The punnets, said to now contain 30% less plastics than before while maintaining their structural integrity, are available to order for the 2022 soft-fruit season.