CP Foods looks to reduce plastic use as part of packaging pledge

Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods) aims for all its packaging to be reusable, recyclable, upcyclable or compostable by 2025 in Thailand and by 2030 for its overseas operations.

The move forms part of a sustainable packaging policy created by the company to reduce its plastic footprint.

CP Foods is looking to cut waste disposal to landfill and incineration by 30% by 2020 when compared to 2015’s performance. As of 2017, the firm reduced waste disposal to landfill and incineration per production unit by 9.1%.

To deliver on its sustainability pledges, the company has developed a framework to optimise its packaging in four key areas: promoting the use of materials from sustainably managed renewable resources, supporting initiatives such as a ‘take-back system’ to recycle or recover energy from used packaging, increasing recycled material content where appropriate without compromising food safety and quality, and moving from single-use towards reuse models for packaging used in production line or transportation.

Sooksunt Jiumjaiswanglerg, CEO of agro industrial business at CP Foods, said: “CP Foods strives to be a responsible company with an environmental-friendly value chain. Therefore, it has been working on the way to find alternative substitutes to single-use plastic materials, especially in the hotspot areas where plastic packages are frequently used such as feed mills, aquaculture farms and food processing plants.”

The company added that new technologies have been applied at its chicken and food processing plants to minimise plastic waste, allowing it to “drop over 3,500 tonnes of plastic since 2006”. The chicken and food processing plants hope to achieve zero plastic bags to landfill by 2025.

Sukhawat Dansermsuk, CEO of food business at CP Foods, added: “Our company strives to make packages which meet consumer expectation in terms of function, design, food safety, while using innovations to maximise utilisation of natural resources in line with the concept of circular economy, which has been a core principle of CP Foods’ business over the years.”

 Last year, CP Foods signed a deal to install Thailand’s largest solar rooftop project, which it said will enable it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28,000 tonnes per year.