US food conglomerate Mondelez International (Deerfield, Illinois; www.mondelezinternational.com) announced it would use recyclable packaging for its “Dairylea” and “Philadelphia” processed cheese brands in the UK and Ireland, August 2021 onward. The move is part of the ‘pack light and pack right’ strategy of the company’s UK business, supporting its 2025 global goals to reduce virgin polymers in its rigid plastic packaging by 25%, and achieving 100% recyclability.

Mondelez said it was replacing polystyrene with PET for its Philadelphia “Mini Tubs and Handi Snacks” packaging. Additionally, Dairylea lunchables now use rPET content in its packaging as a result of a design optimisation project, reducing the virgin plastics needed by 75% or approximately 276 t/y. Both brands will be marked with the UK recycling logo “OPRL”.

The company also said that by the end of 2022 Philadelphia will become the first major cheese brand to pioneer the use of chemical recycling. This is part of the company’s commitment to use 5% recycled content across all plastic packaging by 2025. In mid-2020, Mondelez had already announced that 2021 onward it would sell its Philadelphia cream cheese in Europe in packaging made of polypropylene recyclate by manufacturer Berry Global (Evansville, Indiana / USA; www.berryglobal.com – see Plasteurope.com of 19.06.2020).

Earlier this year, Mondelez had launched the “Flexible Plastic Fund” with UK retailers and other FMCG companies (see Plasteurope.com of 07.06.2021). The fund is intended to promote the collection and recycling of flexible packaging.