Kellogg Company announced today that it is expanding its Global Sustainability Commitments to include a goal of working towards 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by the end of 2025. This aspiration builds on Kellogg’s current sustainable packaging commitment, as part of its Sustainability 2020 goals, to continue to ensure 100 percent of all timber-based packaging is either recycled or certified as sustainably sourced.
“Nurturing our planet is a foundational value of Kellogg,” said Steve Cahillane, Kellogg Company Chairman and CEO. “It’s imperative we are part of a solution that ensures a healthy and sustainable planet for all people around the world.”
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), of the 311 million tonnes of plastic produced each year, only 14 percent of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally and just 5 percent of it is retained for secondary use.1
Kellogg has already made steps toward “greening” its own facilities. In April 2018, the company announced the transition to compostable and paper food service products in all of its plants and offices globally by the end of 2018, fully eliminating all remaining single-use foam and plastic serviceware, plastic straws and plastic water bottles.
Kellogg has also been actively working with its suppliers to identify packaging designs that minimize waste while ensuring the quality and safety of its foods. For example, in Europe, the company has launched a project to move its cereal pouches to a recycle-ready material by late 2019, which will remove an estimated 480 tonnes of non-recyclable packaging from its supply chain each year.
“We cannot accomplish this ambitious goal alone, and we will collaborate with new and existing external partners, our customers and other innovators to identify packaging solutions that protect and enhance our foods while delivering on the quality and great taste that consumers expect from us,” said Lou Massari, Senior Director, Global Packaging, Kellogg Company.
These actions all contribute toward Kellogg’s support of U.N. SDG #12- Sustainable Consumption and Production, including 12.5, to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. It also contributes to Kellogg’s commitment against SDG #12.3, to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and to reduce food losses along the production and supply chains including post-harvest losses by 2030.