Polypropylene (PP) pots incorporating 50% recycled material from Berry are helping Norway’s largest dairy company TINE achieve its sustainability strategy.
TINE has converted the packaging for two of its Rømme products and one of its sour creams from polystyrene (PS) to PP pots with 50% recycled material, calculated using the mass balance approach, certified by the International Sustainability & Carbon (ISCC PLUS) system.
TINE’s head of sustainability Bjørn Malm said: “At TINE, we want all our packaging to be made of renewable or recycled material by 2025. Our new packaging solution for Rømme and sour cream is an important step towards our goal.”
Rømme is a dairy product best described as a fusion of sour cream and cream, used to create tasty dressings, dips, porridge and other dishes. TINE has introduced the pots using recycled PP (rPP) for its Rømme 300g Lettrømme 17%, 300g Seterrømme 35% and 300g Creme Fraiche 35%. Gradually, rPP will also be phased in on six other products in pots. In the long run, TINE is planning to use rPP for its entire portfolio of products for cooking, in line with the EU’s target for 50% of all plastic packaging to be recycled in 2025, rising to 55% in 2030.
“If we are to reach the EU goals, it is evident that both Norway and all other EU countries must increase material recycling by tens of thousands of tonnes in the years to come,” said Bjørn Malm. “Switching from PS to PP is a good way of contributing to this since a larger share of PP than PS is recycled. Therefore, we are very pleased to have successfully converted to 50% rPP based on the mass balance approach for three of our main products.
“PP is a material with a lower climate footprint than PS because, among other things, it has a lower melting point and is therefore less energy intensive,” he continued. “Add to this the fact that 50% of the PP in our new pots consists of recycled PP (rPP), then we have improved the climate footprint of the pots quite a bit and we save 110 tonnes of virgin fossil plastic material.”
In addition, TINE points out that PP cups are more robust than PS ones which, in turn, increases user functionality for the customer.
Berry worked closely with TINE in the development of the new pots. Brand manager for TINE’s cooking assortment Camilla Løken said:
“Our collaboration with Berry has been very good, well focused and highly valued throughout the project. With a positive and helpful attitude and thanks to its ISCC PLUS certified site in Lidköping, Sweden, Berry made the conversion in a short time and showed great flexibility related to design deadlines and delivery of packaging on time to our facilities. Berry also followed up on large-scale testing at our productions facilities and has assisted during the test runs. In short, we are very satisfied with our collaboration.”