Why companies struggle with repackaging and recycling

DW (English)

Everyone wants the thing inside. But the packaging that carries our everyday products — diapers, foods, toiletries and countless other objects — has taken on new importance as companies try to clean up their act.

Transcript

00:00 This is a ketchup bottle from Kraft Heinz and this is its cap. The company

00:06 says it will soon be fully recyclable, making the bottle fully recyclable.

00:11 Replacing this simple part supposedly took 45 prototypes and eight years.

00:17 That's according to the company. All for a ketchup bottle cap. This is the new

00:22 world of packaging where companies are reinventing their very first impression

00:27 on customers. All while ensuring that their new packaging works as well as the

00:32 old one. Here's a look at the difficult decisions behind sustainable packaging.

00:38 Images like these are upsetting. Plastic trash in the ocean, on land, in some cases

00:45 plastics exported from wealthier countries to poorer ones. And in addition

00:50 to being an eyesore, plastic is a major climate problem. Primarily due to its

00:55 fossil fuel based production and its packaging that's the single largest

01:00 source of plastic demand. Industry surveys show consumers want their

01:05 products to be more sustainable and to preserve biodiversity. What sustainability

01:11 does, it makes certain companies grow. Ilkka Leppavoari has advised

01:17 companies on sustainable packaging. It makes those companies grow who can find

01:21 applications where their substrate is the better solution. Experts say that for

01:26 major brands like Kraft Heinz, Nestle or Amazon however, it's often a burden.

01:32 They're spending to replace one type of packaging with another without the

01:36 promise of more sales. And it's not as simple as swapping out packaging. For one

01:42 there are loads of different materials to choose from. Even within plastics

01:46 there's a variety of types. There's polyethylene terephthalate or PET

01:51 common for bottles. Some hold your glue, others your whatever that is. Our ketchup

01:58 bottle is made out of PET plastic. This original squeeze cap is made out of a

02:03 different plastic called polypropylene.

02:08 Polypropylene is technically recyclable and is quite popular in food packaging.

02:14 Polypropylene is not new at all, it's been used quite a lot. Adam Harriet is a

02:20 plastics expert at British Packaging and Waste Advocate WRAP. So a lot of times

02:25 you'll see it in things like, especially food packaging, because it's got a very

02:29 good oxygen barrier on there so you get them in sort of like tubs of butter and

02:33 margarine or ice cream tubs. So what was the problem with the original ketchup

02:37 cap if it's already recyclable? There's a second material inside. Look here. This

02:44 small part where the ketchup comes out. That's flexible silicon and that makes

02:48 the cap harder to recycle. The issue is really the small valve. Christoph Valdao

02:55 is the CEO of B&P Creality which works with firms on sustainable packaging. So

03:02 they said okay we need to have a mono material. We need just

03:06 polypropylene because when you look at for example white uncolored packaging

03:12 made of polypropylene for example, this is highly recyclable as a mono material.

03:17 So swapping out that one small valve makes recycling the entire product much

03:22 easier. But there was a risk factor.

03:25 "America's favorite ketchup and give it a squeeze."

03:28 "Give Heinz a squeeze, anytime that you please. Just a little or a lot. Right on the spot, give Heinz a squeeze."

03:38 There are some aspects of the packaging which are really important for the

03:41 consumer. And you know bringing the ketchup on the right place on your plate,

03:45 this is very very important.

03:47 In order to retain that function with a new material, Kraft Heinz

03:52 re-engineered the cap entirely and filed these patent documents for the Balaton

03:57 closure. It comprises two pieces of polypropylene and supposedly works just

04:03 as well as the old design. Kraft Heinz isn't the only company going through

04:08 this process. Look at your milk carton or juice box. That's what's known as aseptic

04:14 packaging. Tetra Pak is one of the most well-known brands. An aluminum layer

04:19 inside keeps out oxygen and light. But aluminum is problematic for greenhouse

04:24 gases. Now Tetra Pak says it's trying to replace that barrier. Let's say that

04:30 you've managed to create a package that is technically 100% recyclable. Now you

04:36 can recycle it and get the material back, right? Cutting your costs. A circular

04:41 economy. But that's easier said than done. One big issue is sorting. Another is that

04:47 health rules limit the use of recycled plastics for food grade plastics. Here,

04:52 just south of Mexico City, is a look at industry's best efforts to make plastic

04:57 more circular. An advanced recycling center run by the British-based company

05:02 Greenback right next to a landfill. There's plenty of material to work with

05:07 and plenty of labor to help with the initial sorting. Greenback is working

05:12 with major brands like Nestle to take recyclable plastics out of the

05:16 surrounding environment, offsetting what Nestle has pumped in. The material is

05:21 broken down by heating to form a liquid plastic resin that's used to create new

05:27 packaging. In other words, we're not trying to recycle plastic into park

05:32 benches, but we're trying to create a full circularity. Philipp von Stauffenberg

05:38 is the CEO of Greenback. As companies face more pressure to show they're

05:43 recycling their plastics or that they're using recycled plastics, they could in

05:48 theory turn to companies like this. Young firms like Greenback can still struggle

05:53 to find investment. The hope is that growing pressure on industry will grow

05:58 this market in the years to come. Creating recycling economies is

06:02 difficult and expensive. The years-long efforts to create recyclable packaging

06:08 may actually be the easy part. One thing is clear, the pressure for better, greener

06:14 packaging is growing and it's unlikely to slow down anytime soon.

06:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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