Kraft Heinz announces 100 per cent sustainable packaging plans

Kraft Heinz has announced plans to make 100 per cent of its  packaging “globally recyclable, reusable or compostable” by 2025.

The company has set “science-based” goals to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and improve the sustainability of its supply chain.

“Our collective industry has a massive challenge ahead of us with respect to packaging recyclability, end-of-life recovery and single-use plastics,” said Bernardo Hees, CEO at Kraft Heinz.

“Even though we don’t yet have all the answers, we owe it to current and future generations who call this planet home to find better packaging solutions and actively progress efforts to improve recycling rates. That’s why Kraft Heinz is placing heightened focus on this important environmental issue.”

Kraft Heinz seem determined to ‘aggressively’ look for alternatives and says it may collaborate externally with packaging experts and organisations to explore technical and infrastructures solutions . It is currently liaising with specialists  Environmental Packaging International (EPI).

The company says it is also looking  to reduce the amount of packaging used overall and has been working for the last two years to optimise current packaging, and is set to continue to increase the amount of recycled plastic it uses in the process. 

Kraft Heinz has stated that it has exceeded its initial target reduction of the weight of its global packaging by 50,000 metric tonnes and is working towards making the  recyclable Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottle fully circular by 2022.

The company has also joined the Science Based Targets Initiative, working towards the transition of a low-carbon economy and working to set science-based greenhouse gas emission reductions in its supply chain.

“We found that most of our emissions are coming from areas outside our direct operations. To truly succeed as champions of sustainability, we will look at our full value chain and determine where we can make the greatest impact for our planet,” added Hees.

The company says it will update its strategy and timeline for its  commitment in 2019.