The initiative will see around 22 tonnes of soft plastic from Tesco’s instore takeback schemes bought by Heinz and then used to manufacture the packaging of microwaveable baked beans packets.
The packaging has been designed and developed by Heinz’s research and development team to be “more sustainable” while retaining the convenience and format.
As part of the process, Heinz will pay an “on-cost” for the material. It will then be sorted and sent to Plastic Energy’s facility in Spain.
Here, it will be “converted into optimal oil feedstock” using a patented process. This will then be used by Saudi Arabia-owned SABIC to manufacture the material at an unnamed plant “in Europe”.
This will then be sent to Berry Global, which will “apply its thermoforming capabilities to mould the food-contact approved polymer pellets made with 39% recycled plastics based on a mass-balance approach into new, post-consumer recyclable pots”.
Collection
Tesco, along with a string of other supermarkets, has been collecting soft plastics since 2021.
It has rolled out collection schemes to all of its large stores and expects to collect around 1,000 tonnes of soft plastic a year.
The partnership with Heinz was backed by Resources and waste minister Jo Churchill, who said: “It is great to see Heinz and Tesco working together to trial packaging to boost recycling levels. Businesses across the UK are stepping up to tackle plastic pollution and we want to incentivise them to do so. Through our landmark Environment Act, we are also making it easier for consumers to recycle more.”
Production
Tesco has worked with Eurokey in the past to sort film, and it has pledged that by August 2022, all material will be sorted domestically.
Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s group quality director, said: “This innovative collaboration is one of the ways that soft plastic returned to stores by our customers will be recycled into new food-grade packaging. After doing everything we can to remove and reduce plastic, we want to develop circular recycling solutions like this so the materials we use stay in our packaging and out of the environment”.
Subscribe for free