Orkla signs European plastics declaration

Recycling more plastics is crucial to solving climate challenges. Orkla now supports a new European plastics declaration aimed at helping to achieve this goal.

Today, the joint European initiative, the Circular Plastics Alliance, launched its vision of increasing plastics recycling in Europe. Orkla is one of the companies that has pledged to contribute to this effort, along with several other international players.

“Plastic is a good packaging material, but we need to make sure that it is recycled and does not end up in the natural environment. We set great store by this joint European initiative, and have helped to draft the declaration. The industry and government authorities must work together to establish circular value chains for plastics,” says Ellen Behrens, VP Sustainability Orkla ASA.

By signing the declaration, the parties commit to designing products and packaging for recycling, using more recycled plastics and increasing demand for recycled plastics. The goal is to ensure that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make products in Europe by 2025.

“One of Orkla’s sustainability goals is to develop more environmentally friendly packaging and products with a smaller environmental footprint. We are involved in a number of research projects aimed at building expertise on ways to reduce our dependency on plastics in the future and integrate plastics into a circular economy,” Behrens explains.

“Plastic is a useful material, but now we really need to make a concerted effort to ensure that it is recycled and doesn’t wind up in nature,” she elaborates. “If we are to succeed, it is absolutely essential that business and industry, the authorities and organisations work together.”

Involved in several plastics projects Orkla is a participant in the FuturePack research project, which aims to develop new expertise and technology to make tomorrow’s plastic packaging more eco-friendly, using more bio-based and recycled plastics. The project is a collaboration between a number of universities, companies and organisations. Furthermore, Orkla is actively involved in the Norwegian Floke project, which adopts an innovative approach to solving societal challenges such as plastics in the ocean.

Several Orkla companies take part in the Design for Recycling project. This joint endeavour was initiated by Grønt Punkt Norge AS (Green Dot Norway plc) to learn more about the kind of changes in material choices and design that could make packaging easy to recycle.

The Circular Plastics Alliance

TheCircular Plastics Alliance brings together public and private sector stakeholders in the value chains for plastics to promote voluntary actions and commitments to increase recycling of plastics.

The Circular Plastics Alliance aims to ensure that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make products in Europe in 2025.d

Did you know that …?

• Orkla’s goal is for all the packaging we use to be 100 per cent recyclable by 2025. We also aim to ensure that 75 per cent of our packaging is made of recycled materials. For plastics, our target is 50 per cent.
• The EU requires that 50 per cent of all plastic packaging is recycled by 2025 and 55 per cent by 2030.