We’re ensuring our customers are sustainability trailblazers

The plastic packaging industry has a challenging and exciting journey ahead. From developing innovative new products to collaborating with partners around the world, we need to ensure we’re doing everything we can to create a lasting transformation – for people and the planet.

There is no doubt that sustainability will drive the long-term success of our sector. As so many of the major players in plastic packaging strive to minimise waste generation, reduce reliance on natural resources and shift toward renewable energy options, there will be a constant need to reimagine the future of the industry.

Whilst responding to market and regulatory demands, kp is always looking to push harder as we deliver upon our promise to the world – the sustainable protection of everyday needs. Teams here are also energised by the responsibility we feel we have to our customers; we want to ensure they remain the trailblazers when it comes to sustainability.

In partnership with customers, consumers, and regulators we’re laser focused on delivering impactful change across three main pillars of activity: closing the loop, working smarter in our operations, and acting responsibly.

Closing the loop

The impact of plastic waste on the environment has long been recognised by many, and there are lots of initiatives supported by companies involved in the plastic value chain to create a circular economy by focusing on innovation to deliver better packaging design and end-of-use systems.

Our goal is to innovate with our customers to help them meet their own sustainability ambitions and targets and we believe it’s imperative we take responsibility for our products after they leave the factory floor.

For many years, we’ve been supporting our customers to maximise waste as a resource, and to include more and more recycled content in their packaging:

We recently launched kpNext^® R1 and RB5, fully recyclable, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) blister films offering plug and play solutions for customers. This product makes what was once a non-recyclable package destined for incineration or a landfill a scalable way to transition to products that can be part of a circular economy of recycled materials.
The kp Tray2Tray^® initiative, which has been adopted at various kp sites, currently uses 7.3% of our post-consumer resin (PCR). There is scope to do so much more, but to be truly game-changing we need to work with others in the industry to create separate recycling and sorting systems specifically for pots, tubs and trays to turn them back into more of the same.

Another win for us, our customers and the planet are kp Zapora^® trays, featuring award-winning padless tray technology designed to remove the need for absorbent pads for fresh cuts of protein, simplify at-home recycling and are helping to close the loop on plastic packaging. Our view is that every new product should help us become part of a more circular economy. However, we can only do this if we all work together to help build new infrastructures and incentives to collect, sort and recycle to enable circularity.

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Working smarter

Recycling at San Tirso site

As part of our commitment to minimize waste and utilise what we have left as a resource, we look at all by-products of our processes and minimise, reuse and recycle, with the aim to divert all waste from landfill. We are well on our way towards our Zero Waste to Landfill goal, with 86% of waste diverted from landfill in 2021, and we are working to make that number 100% in 2022. Our new waste management providers are being selected because of their ability to offer zero landfill solutions.

Whilst many of us in the sector will already be making great strides in cutting energy usage and reducing greenhouse gas emissions across plants, sites and production processes, renewable energy offers yet fully untapped prospects. By the end of 2021, 28% of our electricity was generated from renewable sources and we’ve recently engaged in some exciting projects to shift our reliance on energy from the grid. Our site in Rayong, Thailand, was a pilot for our phased approach to rolling out solar energy. So far, we’ve generated almost 2.5% of plant consumption but this is just the start. As we look to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, I’m pleased to say feasibility studies for the installation of on-site solar energy systems are already underway at 15 other sites as part of plans for implementation company-wide in 2022 and beyond.

Acting responsibly

As a global organisation, we understand the breadth of our stakeholders and the impact that our work can have on the communities in which we operate. That’s why it is important that we uphold the highest standards in our work, and why we encourage organisations around us in the plastic packaging value chain to make sustainability a guiding principle at all levels of operation.

Our recently launched Sustainable Procurement Policy and Programme supports us to understand and reduce the environmental, economic and social impacts of operations across the value chain. With over 10,000 suppliers worldwide we’re well positioned to inspire them to go beyond compliance, and also offer incentives if they gain external verification for their sustainability performance to encourage continual improvement. To push ourselves further, we also recently expanded our analysis of Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions attributed to raw materials procurement, and are working with 43 suppliers who contribute the most significant share of our upstream Scope 3 emissions to shift the dial as quickly as possible.

By being transparent, and working together, we can improve our combined capability to deliver sustainable outcomes.

Quality control at San Tirso site

Embracing the challenge

Despite the disruption of COVID-19 and other recent global events, kp remains committed to ensuring its customers lead from the front when it comes to sustainability. We’re set up for success thanks to our innovative products and leading technologies. But we will keep striving to do more.

Our Sustainability Report, launching soon, celebrates our achievements in 2021. All of this work is built on foundations that have been put in place over many years, and it also shows what we need to do better as we push our thinking, drive innovation, and share our successes and failures with others so we can collaborate to accelerate progress.

Whilst we can’t predict the future, all of us have a role to play in the solution. One thing I promise is that I’m going to ensure kp is uncompromising in its drive towards greater transparency across the industry, and I look forward to working with clients, competitors and regulators alike.

Yui Kamikawa

Vice President Sustainability

We remain focused on our ambitious 2025 sustainability goals, and as a sector, I have no doubt we’ll become stronger and find even more innovative ways to address sustainability issues.

Here’s to collaborating more with a greater sense of urgency.