Produce Stickers: From Nemesis to Dialogue: A Conversation with Scott Howarth

About this episode

Jayne Merner interviews Scott Howarth about the evolution and future of produce stickers, particularly in relation to compostability and sustainability.

In Episode 9 of The Composter , I sit down with Scott Howarth from the Sinclair Group, one of the largest manufactures of produce labels. We talk about how fruit stickers came to be, how labeling is evolving, what the future could hold for compostable produce labeling. Last September, I found myself in a friendly conversation with the stranger sitting next to me. We were chatting away when I suddenly realized that this stranger, Scott, played a role in developing what many composters consider their greatest nemesis: the fruit sticker. 40 billion stickers a year are made by the Sinclair Group, where Scott does Research and Development. For decades, I’ve been having imaginary conversations with Scott (although I didn’t know that was his name. So many compost gripe sessions over the last 15 years have circled back to those tiny little stickers. Finding them in finished compost. Trying, and usually failing, to teach people to remove them. Knowing there’s no practical way to screen them out once they’re in the system. So this episode really felt like a rare opportunity to sit down, ask the questions, and get to the root of it all. The future is looking bright and Sinclair is at the…

People in this episode

Host: Jayne Merner

Guest: Scott Howarth

Topics covered

• produce labeling
• compostable materials
• fruit stickers
• sustainability
• environmental impact

Keywords

• produce stickers
• compostable labels
• Sinclair Group
• fruit labeling
• environmental legislation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sinclair Group, Zespri

Places: New Zealand, Europe

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