The global candy and snack company Mondelēz International has admitted that it faces big problems in virgin plastic reduction in all of its packaging. The business highlighted the challenges of striking a balance between the demands of functional packaging and aspirational sustainability goals in its recently published sustainability report, which also outlined the company’s success in environmental activities.
According to the report, Mondelēz has made progress in other sustainability-related areas, like lowering greenhouse gas emissions generally and using recycled materials in its goods. Nevertheless, the business has encountered challenges in its efforts to reduce its dependency on virgin plastic, which is a crucial part of many of its packaging solutions.
Among these challenges, the function of plastic in ensuring product integrity, shelf life, and customer satisfaction is a critical factor. For a business like Mondelēz, whose products include well-known treats like Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates, and Trident gum, packaging is very important for keeping food fresh and avoiding waste. Even though recycled and biodegradable materials are being looked into as options, they haven’t quite met the performance standards needed for the company’s wide range of products yet.
Furthermore, the sustainability study points out that plastic continued to make up a big part of Mondelēz’s packaging in 2024. The company has made it clear that it wants all of its packaging to be reusable by 2025. It sees this as a key goal for reducing the damage its operations do to the environment. But only 5% of its plastic packaging is made from recycled materials right now. The company wants to raise this number as soon as technology and the market allow it.
Mondelēz also talked about bigger problems with the system, like the fact that there aren’t many high-quality recovered materials available and there are holes in the world’s recycling infrastructure. To deal with these problems and speed up the move towards a circular economy, the company has asked everyone in the packing value chain to work together more.
As people become more aware of plastic garbage, Mondelēz is still being closely watched to make sure it keeps its environmental promises. This study shows how hard it is for people in the packaging industry to find a balance between caring for the environment and meeting business needs by virgin plastic reduction.