Kraft Heinz pilots recycled plastic packaging for roofs

Dive Transient:

• Kraft Heinz has mounted new roofs made of recycled plastic packaging on producing services in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and Holland, Michigan.
• The food processing large installed the recycled roofing boards in late 2020 and will keep an eye on the recycled material’s performance versus standard creating elements with an eye to standardizing its use if the examination goes well.
• The recycled roof boards are 4 ft by 8 toes, and 94% of each individual board is manufactured from submit-shopper plastic and fiber. The company did not reveal how substantially of its factories’ roofs have been covered in the recycled boards, but it is absolutely currently being set to the test. Beaver Dam observed a foot of snow in February, although Holland been given additional than 2 toes, according to info from the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dive Insight:

If this take a look at performs and the recycled materials is as great as the regular roofing, it could be a match changer for Kraft Heinz. It is really not distinct how a lot versatile packaging the CPG firm makes use of for its merchandise every year. According to data on Kraft Heinz’s web page, about 30% of its packaging as of 2019 fell into the non-recyclable group, which includes flexible plastic movies or rigid plastic containers.

The enterprise has quite a few sustainability goals, like creating 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025. To attain that objective, the model 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 manufacturers are operating to reuse their waste products and solutions — each by means of upcycled products and solutions that save foodstuff things from the trash and production processes that use waste for electrical power — a thriving take a look at end result could place Kraft Heinz in a class of its very own. The business could potentially renovate its factories with its own post-consumer squander, which would be impactful. According to Kraft Heinz’s annual report, it has 81 production amenities worldwide and owns all but 3.

Kraft Heinz’s pilot job will be a lasting proof of strategy for applying recycled plastic as roofing content in industrial properties. It may possibly assistance popularize this reuse of plastic packaging, as very well as lead to enhancements in the energy, weatherproofing and longevity of this roofing materials. As of 2018, 46% of recycled plastic movie ends up as this variety of lumber, according to a report organized for the American Chemistry Foundation. The biggest dilemma remaining unsolved may perhaps be how to get people to change their conduct and recycle far more versatile plastic — a little something that now transpires only at fall-off bins put outside the house stores.