13:00 | PERTH | AUSTRALIA

It’s lunchtime for Lucy Smith and Angela Everett and they prepare their lunch in the office kitchen. Into the microwave goes a lasagne, while yoghurts for dessert are cooling in the fridge, where a bar of chocolate also resides. The lasagne comes in an alufoil container which has the great advantage of not having to be transferred on to a plate. An additional advantage of the alufoil container is that the lasagne has a particularly tasty crust.

The lasagne takes less time to heat, generating energy savings, while the container can also be easily recycled. The yoghurts come in a plastic cup topped with an alufoil-based easy-peel lid for convenience. The lid provides the necessary barrier for gases, odours and light, making the yoghurt an ideal snack.

Next comes a piece of chocolate hygienically wrapped in alufoil which not only exhibits all the same properties as the yoghurt lid but also provides a certain heat resistance, so necessary in a hot climate to prevent distorting or melting. The girls go back to work satisfied, looking forward to an evening on Perth’s sunset coast.

Microwaving meals in alufoil trays is faster and the consumption of energy involved is lower than in standard ovens.