Nordic meat and meals company HKScan has announced that it will replace all black plastic packaging in Sweden and Finland by the end of this year.
Image: Meat and meals company HKScan will eliminate black plastic packaging in Sweden and Finland. Photo: courtesy of Lily Banse / Unsplash.
As part of its environmental responsibility, HKScan intends to replace all non-recyclable black plastic packaging with other colors and sustainable material in both countries.
HKScan categories and concepts EVP Heli Arantola said: “The food industry can be more progressive and take ambitious steps towards responsible material usage throughout the value chain. The message in IPCC’s recent climate report was clear: there is no time to waste.
“All industries need to do more and work faster. We have speeded up our development to respond to this – replacing black plastic packaging with other colours and materials is a concrete step towards the right direction.”
HKScan said the Mamma Scans meatballs packaging, which has been developed in Sweden, helps in reducing the use of plastics by 30 tons per annum.
The company’s consumer brand Rose has launched new packaging with transparent and recycled plastic in Denmark. The plastic buckets are replaced with easy-to-carry bags to use for chicken, pork sashliks and marinated meat in Baltics, enabling to decrease the use of plastic by around 70%.
HKScan will launch two new minced meat novelties this February in the Finnish market. The recyclable cardboard packaging will be used for novelties.
The company is focusing more on improving material effectiveness and recycling, as well as implementing initiatives to use sustainable packaging solutions to reduce food waste with material choices and qualities.
The packaging design is being optimized to improve product safety, shelf life and increase recyclability of packaging materials.
In Sweden, HKScan is following the vision of Swedish Food Retailers’ Federation, which aims to make plastic packaging into recyclable by 2022 and all plastic packaging must be produced from renewable or recycled raw materials by 2030.
To support the initiative, the firm also launched a sustainable packaging project to determine activities to increase usage of recyclable materials and materials from renewable sources.
Arantola further said: “In 2017, 38 per cent of our packaging materials came from renewable sources. From this figure, approximately a fifth was from recycled materials. We aim to material efficiency without compromising product safety.”