Kraft Heinz pilots recycled plastic packaging for roofs

Dive Brief:

• Kraft Heinz has installed new roofs made of recycled plastic packaging on manufacturing amenities in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and Holland, Michigan.
• The food items processing giant installed the recycled roofing boards in late 2020 and will keep an eye on the recycled material’s functionality vs . typical setting up products with an eye to standardizing its use if the exam goes perfectly.
• The recycled roof boards are 4 ft by 8 toes, and 94% of each individual board is designed from publish-shopper plastic and fiber. The company failed to indicate how considerably of its factories’ roofs have been covered in the recycled boards, but it can be definitely remaining put to the examination. Beaver Dam noticed a foot of snow in February, whilst Holland gained much more than 2 toes, in accordance to knowledge from the Countrywide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dive Perception:

If this examination functions and the recycled content is as superior as the common roofing, it could be a video game changer for Kraft Heinz. It really is not apparent how substantially versatile packaging the CPG enterprise utilizes for its products yearly. According to stats on Kraft Heinz’s web-site, about 30% of its packaging as of 2019 fell into the non-recyclable classification, which include versatile plastic movies or rigid plastic containers.

The company has various sustainability goals, which include making 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025. To reach that objective, the manufacturer is screening a recyclable and compostable paper cup for Macaroni & Cheese in the U.S., and in Europe options to make its Heinz Ketchup bottles with recyclable food-quality PET plastic.

As companies are functioning to reuse their squander merchandise — both equally as a result of upcycled goods that help you save foods items from the trash and manufacturing processes that use waste for power — a profitable test final result could set Kraft Heinz in a class of its possess. The enterprise could most likely renovate its factories with its very own put up-purchaser waste, which would be impactful. According to Kraft Heinz’s annual report, it has 81 producing amenities worldwide and owns all but a few.

Kraft Heinz’s pilot venture will be a lasting evidence of strategy for making use of recycled plastic as roofing content in industrial properties. It may perhaps support popularize this reuse of plastic packaging, as well as lead to improvements in the power, weatherproofing and longevity of this roofing product. As of 2018, 46% of recycled plastic film ends up as this sort of lumber, according to a report organized for the American Chemistry Foundation. The biggest challenge still left unsolved could be how to get buyers to alter their conduct and recycle far more versatile plastic — something that at this time occurs only at fall-off bins positioned outside the house retailers.