Together with Albert Heijn, Royal A-ware is aiming for a substantial reduction in plastic packaging. The target of 25 percent reduction by 2025* has already been met comfortably. Replacing plastic containers with bags, the biggest project in 2024, played a big part in this.
'Zaanse pride'. Under that banner, Royal A-ware carried out its biggest 2024 packaging project. 'We developed new packaging for Albert Heijn where all the trays with slices and pieces of cheese were replaced by bags that can be recycled, or are recycle-ready,' says Pieter-Jan Bogerd, Technical innovation manager. 'This has enabled us to reduce the amount of plastic by as much as 60 percent. That adds up to over four hundred thousand kilos of plastic a year.'
The project was a major operation. We replaced four packaging lines, which together make tens of millions packs a year. 'Our colleagues had been working with the same technology for 15 years. The commissioning of four new packaging lines with 43 new and upgraded machines has had a huge impact on the organisation. We wanted to implement it quickly so that the consumer in the supermarket was as little affected by this transition as possible. Managing that in only a few months is quite unique. It really is a team effort.'
- *as compared to 2018
All packaging recycle-ready
'Zaanse pride' is part of the target set by Royal A-ware together with Albert Heijn in 2018: to reduce plastic by 25 percent by 2025. 'We already reached that target in 2023,' said Pieter- Jan. 'But of course we will continue with this. Not only are we reducing packaging weight, but we also want all our packaging to be recycle-ready.'
Therefore that is the target for 2025. All Albert Heijn packaging will be recycle-ready by the end of 2025. Pieter-Jan: 'The packaging of grated cheese and sliced cheese is already recyclable. For next year, the last three projects are on the agenda: imported cheeses, freshly packaged pieces of cheese and unrefrigerated pieces of cheese. It's important that we take maximum sustainability steps while maintaining taste, safety and quality'.
We reduce the amount of plastic by as much as four hundred thousand kilos a year.
Progressive
Apart from making plastic packaging more sustainable, labelling is also an issue. 'The label must be made of the same material as the packaging, otherwise it cannot be recycled. In today's market, not all labels are available in the material we want. Because we want to be progressive in this, we are trying to get suppliers to develop these labels for us.'
Making packaging more sustainable is a process that is never finished. Pieter-Jan: 'There is always room for improvement! And if it can't get any better, there are bound to be gains on ease of use. This is how we keep improving our packaging continuously.'
Figures
From tray to bag: 13.5 grams (tray) to 5.5 grams (bag)
Total 'From tray to bag': 400,000 kilos of plastic reduction per year