C&C’s Tennent’s brand and Heinz have become the latest firms to make a move away from using plastic to hold together multipacks.
Tennent’s is investing £7m in packaging equipment at its Wellpark Brewery which will support its drive to eradicate single-use plastic from consumer packaging.
As part of its ‘Because Life is Bigger than Beer’ initiative, the firm expects to remove 150 tonnes of plastic from Tennent’s Lager can packs by 2022, including more than 100 million plastic (hi- and mid-cone) rings.
When the work at its Wellpark Brewery is completed in the spring, the brewer will be able to produce up to 120,000 cans per hour, packaged in fully recyclable cardboard.
Martin Doogan, group engineering manager at C&C, said: “Sustainability is at the core of our business and we will always look for ways to innovate and minimise our impact on the environment to play our part in tackling the climate crisis. Today’s announcement is the latest step as we work towards our 2022 goal of eliminating single-use plastic from our consumer packaging and our ongoing commitment to environmental best practice in everything we do.”
Meanwhile, Heinz has announced that it is switching to a paperboard sleeve for its multipack canned products. The new ‘eco-sleeve’ is recyclable and is approved by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). It also uses 50% less material than a fully enclosed box and 10% less than traditional paperboard sleeves.
Heinz estimates that a rollout across all its canned products and major UK retailers will remove 550 tonnes of shrink-wrap packaging. The first products – a selection of Heinz Soups – are available in the new packaging, with a UK-wide launch to commence in Autumn 2021.
Kraft Heinz’s Northern Europe President Jojo de Noronha said: “It is clear that convenience is important to shoppers – research has found that 59% of UK shoppers say that if a package is easy to carry or transport, it is impactful to their overall satisfaction with the product. And sustainable packaging has a significant impact, too, with 71% of UK shoppers agreeing that they are more satisfied with a product if it is easily recycled or composted.
“Grounded in shopper insight, we feel this new recyclable and easy-to-carry paperboard sleeve ticks both of those boxes and is the perfect eco-friendly solution for our multipacks.”
