Mars Petcare launches chemically recycled cat food pouches with Huhtamaki and SABIC

14 Dec 2021 --- Mars Petcare is launching what it says is the world’s first recycled packaging for wet pet food. Developed in partnership with Huhtamaki and SABIC, the pouches are created using chemical recycling technologies.

The partnership says the new packaging, which will be featured first on cat food brand Sheba in early 2022, was only made possible through chemical recycling. The packaging follows the launch of the partnership last year. 

Barry Parkin, chief procurement and sustainability officer at Mars, says the company has been closely working with SABIC and Huhtamaki over the past year, continually testing and learning and scaling up the recycled plastic content in its pet food packs. 

“As part of our ‘Sustainable in a Generation’ plan, we are committed to doing our part to help drive a circular economy, which includes redesigning our packages for circularity.” 

“The fact that we are now able to introduce recycled content into our Sheba pouches helps accelerate our journey to achieve 30% average recycled content in our plastic packaging and to reduce by 25% our use of virgin plastic.” 

Pet food problems 
Mars says pet food packaging is considered a very challenging packaging format in which to utilize recycled content due to thermal processing needed to create high quality. 

The new pet food packs are made possible only through chemical recycling, says Mars Petcare.“By using ISCC PLUS certified recycled material, Mars Petcare brings to life a technology that can provide a step-change in the sustainability journey of the pet-food industry,” says the company. 

SABIC is a pioneer in chemical recycling via its Trucircle plastic portfolio and services, providing certified circular products produced using feedstock derived from previously difficult-to-recycle used plastic household packaging. 

Pioneering recycled polypropylene
SABIC’s ability to process flexible plastic packaging waste back into polypropylene (PP) for direct food contact is a first, says Mars. With Huhtamaki’s technical expertise in formulating and producing easy tear, sterilizable PP films such as Terolen, SABIC’s Trucircle polymers can then be used in wet pet food packaging like the Sheba pouch.

Through innovations such as these, advanced recycling techniques which process flexible plastic packaging waste will develop further and allow food contact recycled packaging solutions to grow at the scale required to have a critical and positive impact on the environment.

Sustainable in a generation 
Mars Petcare’s latest innovation comes as part of its Sustainable in a Generation plan, which aims to bring the company’s environmental footprint in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

With an investment of US$1 billion, Mars is aiming to achieve 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025. In the same time frame, it also pledges a 25% reduction in virgin plastic use, a 30% average recycled content in all packaging and the elimination of polyvinyl chloride. 

This year, Mars began a two-year partnership with Danimer Scientific to develop flexible and rigid home compostable packaging for confectionery products, starting with the Skittles brand in the US. Danimer Scientific’s signature biopolymer – Nodax PHA – is renewably sourced and can serve as an alternative to traditional petrochemical plastic.

By Louis Gore-Langton