Kraft Heinz will aim to make 100% of its packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, in a move to improve the sustainability of its supply chain.
The company said it will “aggressively pursue technical alternatives” to achieve the goal as well as partner with packaging experts and organisations,
It added that it will work toward increasing the usage of recycled content in its packaging and decreasing the overall volume of packaging used.
Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees said: “Our collective industry has a massive challenge ahead of us with respect to packaging recyclability, end-of-life recovery and single-use plastics.
“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.”
He added: “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.”
From our 2015 baseline, Kraft Heinz has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and solid waste sent to landfill all by 15%.
Additionally, Kraft Heinz Europe is working to make the recyclable Heinz Tomato Ketchup PET plastic bottle fully circular by 2022, by using recycled material that can be made back into food-grade packaging.
Kraft Heinz will further outline its strategy and timeline for achieving its commitments in its next corporate social responsibility report, expected to be issued in 2019.
In its most recent quarterly figures, Kraft Heinz saw its net sales decline by 0.3% to $6.3 billion as the company’s US unit struggled.
In the three months to 31 March, net sales in the US, the company’s largest market, were down 3.3% to $4.37 billion, partly due to lower shipments of nuts, cold cuts and frozen potatoes.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024