Italy’s Ferrero Group is intensifying its commitment to making 100% of packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. As part of this effort, the company has announced new global partnerships with HolyGrail 2.0 and Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), as well as significant brand projects including the introduction of a new thinner packaging material for Kinder Bueno snack.
Ferrero has recently signed CGF’s Plastic Waste Coalition’s new Golden Design rules, as another commitment to assess and redesign the critical elements of packaging, highlighting the need for alignment and scale to drive positive change globally. As longstanding partners with the CGF, Ferrero shares the organization’s vision that the transition to a circular economy requires a different approach to plastic usage, from production, consumption and reuse, to recycling and disposal.
HOLYGRAIL 2.0
Ferrero joins HolyGrail 2.0, demonstrating its commitment to innovation in plastic packs sorting and investing in pilot projects to improve current sorting technology gaps. The project aims to prove the viability of digital watermarking technologies for accurate waste sorting, resulting in more efficient and higher-quality recycling.
Specifically, Ferrero recognizes the opportunity to put in place sorting for a dedicated stream of food packaging plastics that will, in turn, generate recycled materials to be reused in line with circular economy best practices.
NEW PACKAGING FOR KINDER BUENO
The Italian company’s packaging team, in close collaboration with leading edge upstream suppliers, have developed a new thinner material, which delivers a thickness reduction of approximately 20% compared with standard films.
The new thinner material will be introduced on selected products, such as Kinder Bueno starting from 2022. This will lead to an initial annual reduction of approximately 550 tons of materials, saving around 1,450 tons of carbon dioxide.
PAPER-BASED PACKAGING FOR KINDER BAKERY PRODUCTS
In Italy, Ferrero is piloting a new paper-based external packaging for its Kinder bakery range, including Kinder Délice and Kinder Brioss. The new packaging features an innovative method of wrapping Kinder Bakery products using paper film, suitable for recycling in the country’s paper stream. If successful, the paper packaging will be rolled out across the business’ entire portfolio of bakery products in the Italian market.
Fabio Mora, Global Packaging Director at Ferrero Group, said: “In 2019, we committed to making all of our packs reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025 and I’m proud to see that we have already made some significant progress on our journey. Over the last few months, we partnered with over 85 companies on the digital watermarks project HolyGrail 2.0. We are also proud to have signed the CGF’s new Golden Design rules as another commitment to assess and redesign the critical elements of packaging. The new thinner Kinder Bueno packaging material and paper-based Kinder bakery trial further demonstrate our ambition to accelerate sustainable innovation and to drive circular solutions. We look forward to sharing further updates on our progress soon” – Mr. Mora said.
