Kraft Heinz sets goals to reduce virgin plastic

After submitting a shareholder proposal and approaching shareholder advocacy nonprofit As You Sow, Kraft Heinz has agreed to set goals to reduce its total virgin plastic use
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The proposal requires Kraft Heinz to report on how the company will reduce plastic packaging, including strategies or goals for reducing plastic packaging, material design, and replacing or reducing the use of virgin plastic
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The company now reportedly intends to set a "substantial" goal of reducing virgin plastic packaging later this year or in the first quarter of 2023
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Kraft Heinz said it will "continue to advance its packaging goals and support the circular economy through a variety of initiatives and investments to reduce virgin plastic materials, redesign packaging, increase the use of recycled content, and continue to explore and scale up reuse
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Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President of As You Sow, said: “We are delighted to have entered into this agreement with Kraft Heinz, which involves a significant reduction in packaging virgin plastic goals, including consideration of packaging redesign and innovative reuse
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There are similar pending proposals with Kroger and hopefully these companies will agree to reduce the use of plastic packaging
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Five other big companies -- Keurig Dr Pepper, Mondelez International, PepsiCo, Target Corp.
and Walmart -- agreed to reduce virgin plastic in 2021 after As You Sow filed a shareholder proposal
.
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Target and Keurig Dr.
Pepper agreed to reduce virgin plastic in branded packaging by 20%, Walmart agreed to reduce 15%; Mondelez International agreed to cut 5% by 2025; and PepsiCo agreed to cut 20% by 2030
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Cumulatively, the combined reductions in virgin plastic use announced by the five brands are clearly expected to exceed 700,000 tonnes
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The biggest cut to date in total plastic use was Unilever's 2019 pledge to reduce virgin plastic use by 50%, including phasing out a total of 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging by 2025
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