Berry’s move aligns with its aim to achieve 30% circular plastic use across its fast-moving consumer goods packaging by 2030
Berry teams up with Heinz and Tesco for soft plastic recycling project. (Credit: Berry Global Inc.)
Plastic packaging products maker Berry Global has said that it is collaborating on a soft plastic recycling project launched by Heinz and Tesco in the UK.
Berry’s move aligns with its aim to achieve 30% circular plastic use across its fast-moving consumer goods packaging by 2030.
Heinz and Tesco have partnered with Berry, Plastic Energy and Sabic to begin the trial with the development of Heinz Beanz Snap Pots.
Heinz Beanz Snap Pots, produced by Berry Global, include 39% of International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS-certified recycled soft plastic on a mass balance basis.
Consumers can return soft plastic to Tesco stores, where it is collected and physically separated for conversion into an ideal oil feedstock by Plastic Energy.
Sabic will then combine this with virgin material to create an alternate feedstock for the production of virgin food-contact certified plastic pellets.
The feedstock will be then delivered to an ISCC-certified Berry Global location to convert it into a new Heinz Beanz Snap Pots.
Berry Global Consumer Packaging International Division president Jean-Marc Galvez said: “This is a prime example of an innovative advancement in circular packaging design made possible by collaboration across the entire value chain.
“This approach helps capture and reuse plastics that currently go unrecycled, to keep materials in use and out of our oceans and landfills.”
The presence of 39% recycled plastic in the new Heinz snap pots was verified using the mass balance approach authorised by ISCC.
It allows for the tracking of the amount and sustainability characteristics of materials used in the production process as well as their sustainability qualities.
Heinz senior packaging development technologist Héloïse Carlier said: “We want our snap pots to be more sustainable while retaining the features that make them so popular with consumers: their convenience, handy snappable format, microwaveability and ensuring the product remains fresh.
“With this project and our introduction of the new Heinz Beanz Snap Pots, 22 tons of soft plastics will be recycled.”