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 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, lightweighting 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 saucebottles(up to 5%), saving about 100 tonnes of plastic annually.
