Mars Petcare to partner with TerraCycle on Europe's first pet-food packaging recycling scheme
29 Nov 2018 --- Mars Petcare has partnered with recycling expert TerraCycle to launch a free, nationwide pet-food packaging recycling scheme, and is inviting the whole pet care industry to join and extend the impact of the scheme. Led by Mars Petcare brands Whiskas and James Wellbeloved, the program is open to any packaging in the market. The partnership joins a string of recent collaborations between TerraCycle and a number of high-profile companies.
The scheme is to offer pet owners a solution to transform waste packaging into items such as park benches, fence posts or construction applications.
“The pet care category is a uniquely emotive one and we know that pet owners are some of the most engaged and passionate consumers when it comes to issues that affect animals and our planet. That’s why it is critical that the pet-food industry responds to the challenges around recycling and plastic waste. Businesses like ours need to pioneer new responses to this problem and our new partnership with TerraCycle is an important part of this,” says Deri Watkins, Managing Director Mars Petcare UK.
“We want to open up this program and are inviting other pet food manufacturers to partner with us and TerraCycle to develop the Pet Food Recycling Program and expand its impact through wider collaboration. Together, we can develop innovative packaging solutions and dramatically reduce the environmental impact of the pet food industry,” he adds.
Through the scheme, pet owners can drop off their used pet food packaging at a number of designated public drop-off locations positioned around the country, or free-post them directly to TerraCycle for recycling. Once the pouches are collected, they are sorted, cleaned and shredded. Any food residue is composted, and the packaging material reused.
Pet owners will be able to return packaging products in the following formats:
- Wet pet-food pouches.
- Flexible plastic packaging for care and treats products.
- Flexible plastic packaging for dry pet-food.
The company points out that the scheme is a positive, short-term solution as Mars Inc. will continue to focus on delivering its global commitment to ensure that 100 percent of its packaging will be recyclable by 2025. This goal is part of the company’s US$1 billion global Sustainable in a Generation Plan, and today 90 percent of Mars Inc.’s packaging is widely recyclable.
Pet-food packaging accounts for around 5 percent of the total European demand for flexible plastic-based packaging..TerraCycle is becoming increasingly well known due to an array of high-profile collaborations. As specialists in “hard to recycle” materials, the company recently partnered with Colgate, to supply consumers with an option to recycle any brand of toothbrush, toothpaste tubes and caps, outer packaging, electric and battery toothbrush heads and toothpaste cartons for free.
The move was welcomed by campaigners, who noted how oral care products are notoriously difficult to recycle. “Oral care products are hard to recycle, with innovation urgently required to reduce the volume of plastic being sent to landfill, incinerated and leaking into the environment,” Juliet Phillips, Ocean Campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency, told PackagingInsights at the time.
Following public outcry over the lack of sustainable end-of-life options for Walkers’ potato chip packets, PepsiCo formed a nationwide recycling scheme with TerraCycle. The plan encourages consumers to either drop off their packets at one of the hundreds of public access collection points that will be developed all around the country or, alternatively, post them for free to TerraCycle.
A further TerraCycle partnership that attracted some criticism within the industry came from Kellogg’s. The companies partnered on a solution that allows consumers to recycle Pringles cans by posting empty cans to TerraCycle using freepost labels.
A Kellogg’s spokesperson told PackagingInsights at the time: “Within the complex Local-Authority-based public recycling infrastructure in the UK, Pringles cans are not currently recyclable, so the Pringles and TerraCycle partnership provides a consistent nationwide solution for all of our consumers. We are also working with TerraCycle to set up public access collection points so that consumers have more opportunities to recycle their Pringles cans.”
However, Simon Ellin, the UK Recycling Association Chief Executive, referred to it as a “fudge that doesn’t solve any issues” and that a new Pringles can with recyclability designed-in must be the goal.
“We have been very vocal about designing packaging for recyclability and circularity and the industry has made great progress. However, the Pringles scheme is a fudge, because while the tube is being recycled, it is still complex in design and complex to recycle. We want consistent, easy to recycle at home packaging. And the fact that the public has to post it, it simply won’t happen in significant quantities,” Ellin told PackagingInsights at the time.
Packaging for pets is big business – it is estimated to account for around 5 percent of the total European demand for flexible plastic-based packaging. As suppliers increasingly work towards making their packaging options more sustainable, a short-term TerraCycle partnership may be ideal to keep environmentally-minded consumers happy.
By Laxmi Haigh
