Tetra Pak sustainability reporting reaches 21-year landmark

Sustainability efforts in Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines continue

Tetra Pak has published the company’s 2019 Sustainability Report online, marking 21 years of sustainability reporting. Over the past two decades, the company’s approach to sustainability reporting has evolved significantly, from focusing on environmental commitments and actions in the first report in 1999 to evaluating every part of the business and its impact, including societal and supplier governance. Adopting a mix of self-assessment to aligning with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, as well as supporting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a process called materiality assessment to ensure the company can make the biggest possible impact.

In this year’s report highlights, find more about: 

Tetra Pak sustainable packaging portfolio strategy and the $90.5 million investment in development of paper straws, tethered caps, and other solutions that replace fossil-fuel based plastics straws from 2019 to 2021.  

How the company is on track with meeting its 2020 carbon emissions reduction ambitions, by saving a cumulative total of 10 million tons CO2 equivalent since 2010 across the value chain 

The company’s commitment to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastics Economy 

Recycling partnerships with companies like Veolia in order to expand collaboration and accelerate global beverage carton recycling. Tetra Pak has made $22.6 million in investments since 2012 to support collection and recycling infrastructures. Plus, creating 45 new roles within the company to support the collection and recycling of cartons globally. 

Driving a Low Carbon Circular Economy

In Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines, much have been done to drive a low carbon circular economy. In 2018, 592 million packs of Used Beverage Cartons (UBCs), which are equivalent to 8,453 tons have been collected and recycled. Tetra Pak works with recycling facilities such as SHA Paper Mill and KPT Recycle Sdn Bhd in Malaysia and Rural Industrial Corporation in the Philippines, all of which have a combined recycling capacity of 23,000 tons per year.  

As part of Tetra Pak’s efforts to drive low carbon circular economy, responsible sourcing plays an important part as well. 100% of packaging materials used in Tetra Pak packages are sourced from Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)-certified forests and other controlled sources. 

Tetra Pak Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines & Indonesia, Managing Director, Michael Wu says: ‘Sustainability has always been at the core of our promise to protect food, people and futures, we are continuously working to achieve minimum climate impact across the whole value chain; and we understand the importance of long term collaboration with our partners such as waste collector, recyclers, customers, government, communities and other stakeholders to succeed in our ambition of a low-carbon circular economy.’

Raising Recycling Awareness

In line with Tetra Pak’s sustainability efforts in the Philippines, school recycling programmes have been set in motion since 2002 – Care & Share and Eco Caravan – with the intent to promote and educate Filipino students on used beverage cartons (UBC) recycling. 

The Care & Share program is an annual interschool competition where students from participating schools are encouraged to properly dispose their used beverage cartons for recycling and to drop them off at recycle bins provided by Tetra Pak in their schools. At the end of the school year, the schools with the most number of packs collected are awarded prizes. Through this program, Tetra Pak has successfully reached over 518K students with its 212 school partners. 

The Eco Caravan are environment talks conducted by Tetra Pak in schools to educate students on the importance of recycling and the right way to dispose drink cartons through fun and engaging activities.

Protecting Futures, Today

Sustainability is here not only to preserve the environment but also to protect the welfare of people. As we acknowledge the growing environmental crisis on this day and age from plastic pollution to carbon emissions, we need to grow more conscious about the impact we have to the environment. Our habits today predict what our future holds. As we thrive to meet our own needs, our future generations should not be stripped of their ability to meet their own. These global efforts are significant steps to creating a future where people and planet can both prosper. 

You can find the Tetra Pak Sustainability Report 2019 here.