All packaging from Arla must be recyclable

28 Sep 2011

Arla is one of the food producers in Denmark, which has the most products in the Danish refrigeration and is thus one of the companies that send most packages in circulation. New environmental strategy from Arla must ensure that all packaging material by 2020 can be used again in one way or another, so there no longer is a waste product but a new resource.

From Lurpak-foil on store shelves in Dubai for the milk carton in the refrigerated counter at your local convenience store. Arla sells so many products worldwide to a total of 155,000 tonnes of used packaging a year. Therefore, even small changes in packaging are substantial savings to the environment. And although Arla already spend a lot of cardboard and paper, there characterized as recyclable, there are also various types of plastic around the products and they are somewhat harder to make usable again. Zero wastage, the problem will Arla now do something about. With the launch of a new environmental strategy for 2020, Arla reduce its waste to zero. Thus, all the packaging that dairy products are packed in, be of materials that can be reused 100 percent of new materials.

A special group from Arla will work specifically with packaging and how these affect the environment. The group has, among other things, developed a calculator that can figure out how much environmental impact a given wrapper provides. It has shown that if the materials packaging is made ??from recycled into new packaging or anything else, halved CO2 emissions for most materials. "There is so much gained by making it possible to recycle our packaging materials. It's going to take a long time, but I believe that the goal of 100 percent recovery is possible for us to reach. It's not something we can do alone, it will be in collaboration with our customers and suppliers, for it is a complicated process with many facets, "says packaging manager at Arla, Klaus Nybro.

Requirements for waste management used today are that there are many different materials such as plastic packaging and there is big difference in how much they can be reused. For example, many of Arla packaging materials mixtures of several types of plastic, making it difficult to manipulate and exploit them after use. The goal is, among other things to get more so-called mono plastic packaging. That is, they consist only of one type of plastic, and therefore are relatively easy to sort and recycle. Here the law also matters. Waste management is very different in countries such as Arla operates and it is hard to do something unique. Klaus Nybro therefore believes that it is initially important to focus on markets where Arla sells mostly to make the most benefit - including Denmark.

Source: Arla Foods