Sustainable snacking: Pladis extends TerraCycle initiative before Christmas biscuit boom

11 Dec 2018 --- Pladis UK & Ireland, the snacking company behind the McVitie’s, Jacob’s and go ahead! brands, has extended its partnership with TerraCycle by six-and-a-half-years to ensure that all plastic packaging across its portfolio can now be recycled through the initiative.

The move comes as part of Pladis’ new and enhanced sustainability goals, which includes signing up to the UK Plastics Pact and pledging to make all of its plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. The company has also joined the On-Pack Recycling Label scheme to ensure consumers are clear on how and where to recycle packaging.

The UK is a nation of biscuit-lovers, with 99.2 percent of households buying biscuits each year, and consuming 2.7 billion packs every year, according to Pladis estimations. The vast majority of these packs contain plastic packaging which could be recycled through the company’s TerraCycle partnership.

Although flexible plastic wrappers are not collected by local council recycling collections, Pladis UK & Ireland has extended its partnership with recycling experts TerraCycle to enable consumers to recycle the wrappers. This covers the entire snacking range including Jacob’s Cream Crackers and Mini Cheddars, which are popular snacks over the Christmas period.

Since the partnership began in 2012, millions of biscuit and cake wrappers have been recycled and turned into items such as park benches and garden equipment, rather than ending up in landfill sites, says Pladis. Consumers can either send their wrappers to TerraCycle by Freepost or drop them off at one of nearly 500 collection points around the country.

Flexible packaging: The pros and cons
“Flexible packaging used for food is often multi-material construction and food contaminated which makes it frequently non-recyclable or difficult-to-recycle though it is possible to ‘downcycle’ these materials to make garden furniture, etc.,” UK-based sustainability expert and Director of Emagine Packaging, Richard Coles, tells PackagingInsights.

“In addition, used flexible packaging, which is high volume and lightweight (i.e. low density) means that it has little or no market recyclate value. This is by taking into account the likely costs to collect, sort, clean and process (assuming the infrastructure was in place),” he says.

Coles explains that despite difficulties with recycling, the main benefits of flexible packaging are that it reduces the cost of transport of packaging materials and packed product. This means relatively positive associated fuel usage and emissions, compared with alternative forms of packaging.

“In addition, flexible packaging provides a resource-efficient means to provide an adequate protective barrier to extend optimal product quality shelf-life and thereby save food waste – an important consideration for highly moisture-sensitive products like biscuits,” adds Coles.

Scott Snell, Customer Vice-President at Pladis UK & Ireland echoes Coles’ opinion: “In many ways, plastic is a fantastic material; it’s lightweight, keeping fuel use down during transportation, it’s durable and it keeps our food fresh, dramatically cutting down on food waste.”

“But these same properties mean that plastic is causing extensive damage to our wildlife and oceans, so we need to make sure that it is recycled and reused, rather than ending up in the environment,” he adds.

“This is why we’re announcing a comprehensive strategy for the long-term, while at the same time taking important steps that will have an impact right now. We’ll be working closely with industry partners to make all our plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. In the meantime, we want to make sure all our consumers have the opportunity to recycle their wrappers, which is why we’ve extended our TerraCycle partnership to our entire snacking range,” explains Snell.

TerraCycle initiative: A step in the right direction
Coles believes that any initiative that promotes environmental awareness and sustainable consumption is a step in the right direction, but voices concerns that the Pladis-TerraCycle initiative will only appeal to “a relatively small though fast-growing number of eco-conscious consumers, no doubt fueled by the ‘Blue Planet II effect.’” This recent BBC program highlighted the impact that climate change and plastic pollution is having on the environment. 

“Given the reportedly 2.7 billion biscuit packs consumed in the UK every year, this initiative is likely to represent a drop in the ocean and more sustainable solutions are needed to save the majority of plastic wrappers (made non-renewable fossil fuel resources), ending up as litter, in landfill sites or waste-to-energy,” Coles says.

Pladis has launched a new video designed to instruct consumers on how to construct homemade recycling boxes from used jaffa cake boxes, snack food packaging, tape and glue.

“Watching the Pladis/TerraCycle video stimulates thoughts about the environmental impact of using tape to construct mini-recycling bins, postage, drop-offs etc.,” continues Coles. “To my mind, it is important to gauge the effectiveness and environmental sustainability of such recycling schemes through access to publicly available data and transparency regarding recycling practices,” he adds.

“Through inspiring multi-stakeholder collaborative Initiatives, like the UK Plastics Pact, sustainable packaging strategies regarding recycling, reuse and composting are likely to be achieved. However, the government needs to take a strategic leadership role in order to co-create the frameworks necessary to develop the sustainable resource management infrastructures needed for a circular economy future,” concludes Coles.

In November, WRAP UK published a roadmap designed to guide businesses towards its 2025 plastic sustainability goals. The roadmap is targeted at businesses, including the 68 members of the UK Plastics Pact, which comprises 80 percent of plastic packaging sold through UK supermarkets and half of all packaging on the market.

The UK Plastics Pact official data partner, Valpak, has warned that increased innovation and collaboration is essential if businesses are to meet their 2025 sustainability goals, especially considering most signatories are not currently meeting targets.

By Joshua Poole