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Bounce Back Better: Charles Baughan of Westaway Sausages

23rd July 2020

Charles BaughanI had a wonderful conversation recently with the inspirational and energetic Charles Baughan of Westaway Sausages, a Devon company that can trace its roots back over 100 years.  I was fascinated to hear the story about a local sausage-maker developing world-leading eco friendly packaging that can disintegrate in your compost bin. 

 

"Even SME's can make a fundamental difference to climate change..."

- Fleur Lewis, Head of Food & Drink

 

If you look up and down any meat aisle in a supermarket you will see vast swathes of products wrapped in cling film that will simply be thrown away into land fill sites.  As one of Devon’s oldest sausage makers, and never one to stand still, Charles wanted to show that even SME’s can make fundamental differences to climate change. 

Charles Baughan Westaways quote

Charles took his inspiration from a biodegradable Co-op bag tracing back the manufacturing process and establishing a relationship with a factory in Italy. To ensure himself that his new eco friendly packaging would be environmentally friendly Charles used his compost bin to test the product and assures me that his “beans are doing very well” in their new compost.

A major milestone

Westaway's has achieved a major milestone in the ongoing war against plastic‐use and as Charles says this hasn’t been about time or money but about “doing the right thing”. It’s so encouraging seeing a small SME from Devon leading the way on single use plastic. Something we could all take inspiration from. Charles Baughan Westaways

“Large corporations and supermarket chains had the same opportunity to do something about the problem, but it has taken our relatively small Devon company to lead the way and develop what we hope will become an industry standard,” explains Charles. “The example we have set changes the way we do things in the food industry and other companies should follow our lead - which would result in the environment being freed of thousands of tons of plastic.” 

Fleur Lewis, Head of Food & Drink was talking with Charles Baughan, MD Westaway sausages who would love to hear from any businesses looking to hear more.

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