Leading confectionery brand Perfetti Van Melle has joined the UK Plastics Pact, joining FMCG titans like General Mills and Unilever to unite in the common goal of tackling plastic pollution in the UK.
The Pact unites governments, local authorities, NGOs and businesses involved in producing, selling, collecting and reprocessing plastic, to deliver ambitious targets for change by 2025.
By bringing together the entire plastics value chain behind a common set of nationwide targets, the move looks to keep plastics in the local economy and out of the environment.
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The Plastics Pact’s key aims include eliminating problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic, making 100% of plastics packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Additionally, it aims to ensure that 70% of plastic packaging is effectively recycled or composted, and 30% average content is recycled across all plastic packaging by 2025.
Last year, the UK Plastics Pact saw a positive 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.
“Tackling plastic waste requires concerted global and national level action. Perfetti Van Melle has already taken meaningful measures to reduce plastics in its packaging and eliminating plastic packaging entirely, where possible,” communications and sustainability manager at Perfetti Van Melle, Hayley Osborne said.
She added: “Most recently, we launched an industry-first Paperboard bottle for Mentos Pure Fresh Gum, an innovation which reduced the plastic in this packaging by 93% in one fell swoop.
“We also replaced the plastic sticks in our world-renowned Chupa Chups lollies with paper sticks in H2 2022, a step which will eliminate around 5k metric tons p.a. of plastic globally over the next three years.”
The membership of The UK Plastics Pact complements the planned program of goals outlined in Perfetti’s 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,” Osborne commented.
Furthermore, the government’s long-awaited deposit return scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles and cans seems set to be implemented by 2025. The scheme, which involves consumers receiving a small cash fee for any bottles returned to ‘reverse vending machines’ in supermarkets, looks to dramatically reduce litter and plastic pollution in England.
The news comes as Perfetti Van melle brand Mentos has been awarded Product of the Year 2023 for Mentos Fanta.
