PACKAGING

A QUEST TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

TETRA PAK ARABIA’S MANAGING DIRECTOR, NIELS HOUGAARD,

SPEAKS TO LOGISTICS NEWS ME ABOUT THE LATEST EFFORTS OF THE COMPANY IN MAKING THE REGIONAL FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY MORE SUSTAINABLE

How did the pandemic affect the sustainability journey of the F&B industry?

The food and beverage (F&B) industry tackles one of the most basic human needs: nutrition. The pandemic has pushed the industry to innovate solutions that address the increased demand for food safety among consumers, while carrying on the global sustainability journey. In fact, consumer behavioral change is the core drive of how the industry operated during the pandemic and beyond.

According to the latest Tetra Pak Index, the pandemic has rewired today’s consumers, forcing them to rethink their priorities and behaviours, as they seek a more resilient and sustainable future. Worries about the environment are stronger than ever. Pollution and plastic litter in the ocean are the joint top environmental worry (at 83%). Global warming closely follows, cited by over three quarters (78%) of consumers. This is ahead of food waste (77%) and food accessibility (71%).

Food safety and security are also top priorities for the public as the pandemic has shone a spotlight on health and highlighted weak points in our food systems. Twothirds (65%) believe that being healthy is being safe, this heightened awareness creating demand spaces for immunityboosting food products.

“FOOD SAFETY AND SECURITY ARE ALSO TOP PRIORITIES FOR THE PUBLIC AS THE PANDEMIC HAS SHONE A SPOTLIGHT ON HEALTH AND HIGHLIGHTED WEAK POINTS IN OUR FOOD SYSTEMS.”

As a purpose-led company and a global industry leader, at Tetra Pak, we believe the world’s food systems need to transform to meet future needs of society, improving food security while reducing the impact on natural resources. We, therefore, aim to focus on three key areas: increasing access to safe, nutritious food; reducing food loss and waste; and building more sustainable value chains.

Sustainability is obviously a top priority for Tetra Pak. What is the company doing to make the value chain more sustainable?

At Tetra Pak, our approach to sustainability is shaped by our brand promise: ‘Protects What’s Good’. We bring this promise to life by committing to protect food, to protect people and to protect our planet. And protecting our planet is one important aspect of our sustainability approach. We have three priorities:

Climate change

We are minimising emissions across our value chain from raw materials sourcing through to packaging end-oflife. We have successfully delivered on our 2020 climate goal, exceeding our ambition to cap our emissions at 2010 levels despite business growth – in fact, we have reduced total emissions by 19%. Now we are working towards an even more ambitious goal: to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in our own operations by 2030, with an ambition to go net zero across the value chain by 2050.

Biodiversity

Our goal is to make all of our packages from 100 percent renewable materials. Already, our cartons made mostly from plant-based materials have a significantly lower climate impact than packages made from fossil or mineral sources. The lifetime carbon impact of a ‘Tetra Recart’ food package, for example, is five times less than its steel or glass equivalent. With renewable materials, products can also have positive environmental, economic, and social impacts, capturing carbon as well as reducing emissions during their lifecycle, and promoting sustainable land use and biodiversity.

Circular economy

We use high-quality raw materials to make our packaging and fulfil our mission to make food safe and available everywhere. Once our packaging has fulfilled its purpose, those raw materials should not go to waste. Instead, they can be collected and -using relatively simple techniques- recycled into something useful. On average, more than 70% of our packaging material is made from long, strong paper fibres that can be recycled several times. The thin layer of polymers – or plastics – in our beverage cartons can be blended with other polymers and turned into new products, such as roofing tiles, crates, carton boxes and more. >>>

As we continue to drive collection and fibre recycling, we are also increasing our focus on polymer recycling in our packaging. As part of our pledge to the EU Plastics Strategy, we will work with partners to ensure that by 2030, recycling solutions are in place for all components of our beverage cartons.

Recycling contributes to a low-carbon circular economy that keeps valuable materials in use. It also helps prevent littering, saves resources, and reduces climate impact.

How about on a regional level, what is Tetra Pak doing to make the industry more sustainable in the Middle East?

Tetra Pak has been present in the Middle East for over four decades, supplying to 25 countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia including most of the demand in Saudi Arabia. Sustainability as it embodies our brand promise – Protects What’s Good – pushes us to seek for opportunities across the entire recycling value chain, together with other stakeholders across the industry, to improve the way carton packaging gets collected, sorted, and recycled.

The goal is to scale the recycling of paper-based cartons, helping to make them the world’s most sustainable food package. We recently signed two industry-first joint initiatives. the first with Obeikan Paper Industries (OPI), a Riyadh-based paper mill that produces 180 thousand tons of duplex board annually, to recycle used beverage cartons in Saudi Arabia and manufacture new products. the second with regional recycling leader, Saudi Top Plastic (STP) Factory, to recycle ‘Polyethylene and Aluminum Polymers’ resulting from the collection and recycling of used cartons.

Creating a circular economy has been a top priority for Tetra Pak over the past few years, even before the pandemic hit. Update us on your efforts to boost this business model, with recycling at the core of it.

Collaboration and partnership are especially vital to recycling, which is one of the key enablers of a low-carbon circular economy. We have worked to develop collection and recycling infrastructure across the globe for many years. The global number of our carton packages collected for recycling increased from 32 billion in 2010 to 49 billion in 2020. We also launched a major global communications campaign called Go nature. Go carton. By fostering debate about sustainable packaging and laying out our approach in a more transparent way it sets out our belief that sustainable, high-performance packaging is critical to help mitigate climate change and address other environmental concerns while feeding a growing population.

With a strong sustainability foundation and bold ambitions to lead the sustainability transformation, we will continue to pioneer a sustainable future that protects what’s good: Food, People, Planet.

How do you see the Middle East progress in terms of sustainability?

I believe that the Middle East is on the right track to achieving remarkable sustainability achievements.

In 2017, the UAE launched ‘Energy Strategy 2050’, aiming to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix from 25% to 50% by 2050 and reduce the carbon footprint of power generation by 70%, thus saving Dhs700 billion by 2050.

Since then, the UAE Government has been promoting vast changes in the decarbonizing process of the supply chain, logistics and transportation in collaboration with financial and industry factors such as local banks and commercial ports authorities. In Saudi Arabia, sustainability has been at the heart of Vision 2030 since its inception. The Kingdom is now ushering in a new era as it aims to reach Net Zero by 2060.

Regional supply chain stakeholders are on the lookout for innovative implementations in different parts of the chain, from autonomous vehicles, emission monitoring drones, solar warehouses and more due to consumer demand and cost optimisation needs.