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News

Kraft Heinz recyclable ketchup bottles

28/10/2020 - François-Xavier Branthôme
Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottles switching to single-material PET for circular economy goal
 
Kraft Heinz recently announced it wants European ketchup bottles to be recyclable as new food packaging. In this context, Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottles in Europe will soon be made of one type of plastic so they can be recycled into food-grade PET.
 
The commitment for a “fully circular” ketchup bottle is among recent sustainable packaging goals from the Kraft Heinz Co. The bottles now are multilayer with a barrier. “Our packaging engineers are able to remove that barrier layer to make the bottles monolayer, and thus capable of being made back into food-grade packaging, or a new Heinz PET Tomato Ketchup bottle, for example,” says Jonah Smith, global environmental social governance lead. 
 
The company is trying to make all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025—reaching about 70% in 2019. Packaging changes are part of a wider sustainable development plan with goals for the environment and healthy communities. The company is designing packaging that incorporates more recycled and recyclable materials, working with an environmental consultant to understand how much of its packaging meets its goal.
 
From 2017 through 2019, Kraft Heinz cut about 13 million pounds (almost 5,900 tonnes) of packaging across brands including Lunchables, Kool-Aid and Miracle Whip. A large portion came from reducing shipping packaging, tray heights and dividers.
 
In recent years, light weighting evaluations resulted in a new, lighter sauce cap that saves 24 tonnes of plastic a year and incorporation of a regrind material from recycled industrial plastic into new sauce bottles (up to 5%), saving about 100 tonnes of plastic annually.
 
Nestlé, Unilever and others sign European Plastics Pact
This decision is part of a broader approach already undertaken by several other world agri-food leaders. Food and beverage companies including Nestlé, Unilever and FrieslandCampina have reaffirmed their sustainability commitments by signing up to the European Plastics Pact in March 2020.
 
The European Plastics Pact is a public-private coalition which aims to accelerate the move towards a circular economy for plastic packaging in Europe. At the time of writing, 17 governments and 72 companies have signed up to the Pact, with major companies including Carrefour, Bonduelle and Veolia also committing to goals established by the Pact.
 
Objectives put forward by the Pact include increasing the use of recycled plastic in packaging, increasing recycling rates of plastic materials and ensuring that packaging is reusable where possible.
 
All signatories to the Pact commit themselves by 2025 to:
  • Design all plastic packaging and single-use plastic products placed on the market to be reusable where possible and in any case recyclable by 2025;
  • Move towards a more responsible use of plastic packaging and single-use plastic products, aiming to reduce virgin plastic products and packaging by at least 20% (by weight) by 2025, with half of this reduction coming from an absolute reduction in plastics;
  • Increase the collection, sorting and recycling capacity by at least 25 percentage points by 2025 and reach a level that corresponds to market demand for recycled plastics;
  • Increase the use of recycled plastics in new products and packaging by 2025, with plastics using companies achieving an average of at least 30% recycled plastics (by weight) in their product and packaging range.
 
Marco Settembri, Nestlé CEO for Europe, Middle East and North Africa said: “One of our joint objectives is to create a circular economy by improving collection, sorting and recycling schemes across Europe. Tomorrow, we want to make sure that also other packaging, such as our wrappers and pouches, can be recycled into new food packaging”.
 
Hein Schumacher, CEO at FrieslandCampina, added: “If we really want to be effective in making measurable sustainable impact, we have to work together, for the long-term. We call that cooperative sustainability. And that’s the approach that’s also needed for plastic packaging. The plastic value chain is international, with large, multi-national producers and suppliers.
A unified European approach, working together across borders and categories can help to scale and speed up. That is different than the national pacts that are already in place. Therefore we support both national and international pacts.
 
Some complementary data
 
Sources: foodbev.com, foodengineeringmag.com, packagingeurope.com
 
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