Heinz tackles plastic pollution

New Heinz eco-friendly paperboard sleeve to replace current shrink-wrapped multipacks

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Published: January 21, 2021
This Article was written by: Katie Hill - My Green Pod
food, packaging, plastic, plastic pollution

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In a move to tackle plastic pollution, Heinz has today (21 January) announced the launch of the Heinz Eco-Friendly Sleeve Multipack – a paperboard sleeve to replace the shrink-wrap on its multipack canned products.

The PEFC-certified paperboard used in the new Heinz Eco-Friendly Sleeve is fully recyclable and comes from renewable and sustainably managed forests.

The wrap design uses 50% less material than a fully enclosed wraparound box and 10% less than a traditional paperboard sleeve design.

In addition to selecting renewable, responsibly-sourced material and optimising the design to minimise the footprint, Heinz is also advancing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the manufacturing and transport of this new innovative sleeve is carbon neutral.

The new Heinz Eco-Friendly Sleeve 4-pack design has a nearly 20% (18.7%) lower CO₂ footprint compared with the equivalent shrink-wrap design.

They are available now across the Heinz Soups range as part of the ‘winter bundle’ on Heinz to Home, and will be launching across all Heinz’s canned products and major retailers in the UK in Autumn 2021.

£25m for Heinz factory

Heinz’s newly designed eco-friendly packaging solution is part of a three-year, £25 million investment and installation at its Kitt Green factory near Wigan.

It’s designed to provide convenience and value to shoppers, while offering a more sustainable solution to single-use plastic packaging.

The Heinz Eco-Friendly Paperboard Sleeve Multipack is an industry first for the food and drink world. The design underwent rigorous consumer and pack performance testing to ensure it is comfortable, secure and convenient for shoppers while also reducing the amount of material required to the absolute minimum.

When rolled out across all UK supermarkets, the Heinz Eco-Friendly Sleeve Multipack paperboard design will remove 550 tonnes of shrink-wrap packaging.

‘It is clear that convenience is important to shoppers – research has found that 59% of UK shoppers say that if a package is easy to carry or transport, it is impactful to their overall satisfaction with the product.

‘And sustainable packaging has a significant impact, too, with 71% of UK shoppers agreeing that they are more satisfied with a product if it is easily recycled or composted.

‘Grounded in shopper insight, we feel this new recyclable and easy-to-carry paperboard sleeve ticks both of those boxes and is the perfect eco-friendly solution for our multipacks.

‘Our packaging innovation team continues to work hard to develop further sustainable solutions across our business as we make a £25 million investment over three years to implement the infrastructure needed to ensure this roll-out is a success, which will be a win for the environment as well as shoppers across the UK.’

JOJO DE NORONHA
Kraft Heinz Northern Europe President

Circular ketchup

This latest news follows an announcement from Heinz in January last year that it was removing plastic shrink-wrap from multipacks of Heinz Soup, Beanz and Pasta across Tesco stores nationwide, instantly removing 175 tonnes of plastic from shelves, (and consequently landfill).

Heinz is working to make further positive steps to reduce its impact on our planet – the company has made its 100% recyclable steel cans a lot lighter over the years through continued investment in the way the cans are designed.

Heinz is also working on broader sustainability initiatives, such as a partnership with waste-free online shop Loop to collect, clean and refill used Heinz Tomato Ketchup glass bottles.

Heinz Europe is on track to deliver its first circular Tomato Ketchup squeezy bottle to the market in 2021, a year ahead of plan, which means it can be made back into food-grade packaging.