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Our Commitment to Sustainability
At Really Wild Bird Food, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword – it’s at the heart of everything we do. From how we grow our seeds to how we deliver them to your door; we’re dedicated to providing the highest-quality products in the most sustainable and wildlife-friendly way possible. Here’s how we stand apart from other bird food manufacturers…
1.
Feed Grown, Harvested and Packaged on our family farm
Unlike many other bird food manufacturers – who often source their feed from multiple suppliers in far-flung locations – at Really Wild Bird Food, we grow, harvest, clean, mix and pack the vast majority of our seeds right here on the farm. This means by the time the seed is ready to be sent to your door, it has travelled a grand total of zero miles!
We grow as many of our bird seed ingredients on our farm as possible and do our best to source the ones we can’t grow from our local farming neighbours. When seed needs to be sourced from overseas, we do everything we can to keep our carbon footprint low, for example, sourcing our sunflower hearts from the South of France and Bulgaria (compared to some of our competitors who import from much further East - particularly China).
2.
Regenerative Farming Practices
Our commitment to regenerative farming means that we prioritise the health of the soil, the preservation of local ecosystems and the wellbeing of local wildlife. Some of our key practices include:
- Minimal Soil Disruption:We avoid unnecessary tilling to protect soil structure and prevent erosion.
- Rainwater Harvesting:We capture rainwater for irrigation, reducing our dependence on local water supplies.
- Precise Herbicide & Pesticide Use:We map our fields and apply herbicides and pesticides only when absolutely necessary.
- Wildlife Protection:We plant wild bird cover, wild flower strips and put out bird feeders in winter to help support our local wildlife.
- Annual Bird Survey:Each year, we partner with well-renowned ornithologists to conduct a detailed survey of the birds on our farm. Year over year, we top the survey with the best variety and numbers of wild bird species in the area – our farm is even home to the incredibly endangered lapwing!
We are also proud to be Red Tractor Assured, meaning our farming practices meet the highest standards for sustainability and animal welfare.
3.
Eco-Friendly Packaging & Recycling
At Really Wild Bird Food, we are constantly striving to improve our packaging, making it is as sustainable as possible while ensuring the safety and quality of our products. Here’s what we’re doing to reduce our environmental impact:
- Upcycled Cardboard: We collect unwanted cardboard from local businesses and use it in our packing and filling.
- Transitioning to Paper Sacks: We are currently in the process of moving to paper sacks for our smaller pack products, which will be packages in recyclable cardboard boxes.
- Sustainable Larger Pages: For our 15kg sacks, we use heavy-duty coated polypropylene for a number of reasons: as our storage is in farm buildings, it is not suitable to store our seeds in paper bags as they could become damp - plus, many of our oilier seeds will leak straight through paper packaging.
Polypropylene is also recyclable, and even if our customers aren’t able to recycle our bags kerbside, we offer a recycling scheme where they can return them to us and we offer a voucher to cover the cost of postage. These returned bags can then either be reused or they enter our farm re-cycling scheme where all plastic waste from the farm is transported about 20 miles away and recycled into other plastic goods.
We are also certified members of the WebbPaton XS Farm Cardboard and Waste Plastic Recycling Scheme.
Every bag of seed you buy from Really Wild Bird Food supports sustainable farming practices, reduces transport emissions and helps to create a healthier, happier environment for our wildlife. Browse our bird seed mixes here!
