Perfetti Van Melle has signed up to the UK Plastics Pact, joining the likes of General Mills and Unilever to unite in the common goal of transforming the plastics economy and tackling plastic pollution through the UK.
The Pact’s key aims include eliminating problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic, making 100% of plastics packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable, as well as ensuring 70% of plastics packaging is effectively recycled or composted and 30% average content is recycled across all plastic packaging by 2025.
Last year, the Pact saw an 84% reduction in problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics since 2018 and noted that recycled content levels have risen from 8.5% in 2018 to 22% in 2021.
Hayley Osborne, Communications and Sustainability Manager at Perfetti Van Melle, said: “Our membership of The UK Plastics Pact complements the planned programme of goals outlined in our own Reduce, Recycle, Recover, initiative, and will ensure we continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards and benchmarks in pursuit of a more sustainable future.”
Perfetti Van Melle recently launched a paperboard bottle for Mentos Pure Fresh Gum, an innovation which reduced the plastic in this packaging by 93%. Last year, it also replaced the plastic sticks in its Chupa Chups lollies with paper sticks, a step which will eliminate around 5,000 tonnes of plastic globally every year for the next three years.
