Kraft Heinz says it will introduce 100-per-cent recyclable sauce bottle caps next year, with the potential to save 1 billion plastic lids from being sent to landfills every year – assuming consumers recycle them, of course.
The caps will soon begin to appear on squeezy Tomato Ketchup and BBQ Sauce bottles in Europe, before being rolled out globally.
The company says it spent US$1.2 million and went through 45 prototypes over eight years to develop the caps it settled on, which are made of an “innovative, single-type of material”. The project took 185,000 hours of staff time.
Heinz sauce bottles have traditionally used a flexible valve, designed to deliver even portions of sauce per squeeze, but this typically proved challenging to recycle. The new cap has been designed to provide the same squeeze but uses a single, rigid, recyclable material.
“A huge amount of work has gone into finding the right solution that means no compromise on using and enjoying our hugely popular squeezy bottles for the hundreds of millions who buy them,” said Jojo de Noronha, president of Kraft Heinz Northern Europe. “Our consumers can now recycle every part of their Heinz squeezy bottle in their weekly curbside collection.”
Last year, Heinz sold 1 billion squeezy bottles worldwide – the caps from which would fill 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to the company’s calculations.
“While we know we still have more to do, from a sustainability and environmental perspective, this is positive news,” said de Noronha.
Heinz says it is committed to reducing packaging waste wherever possible while continuing to offer great value. The new caps are part of Heinz’s pledge to aim to make 100 per cent of its packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
