The Addlestone, Surrey, UK-headquartered Mondi Group has teamed up with the Iceland Foods supermarket chain to provide renewable, recyclable packaging in a move that further accentuates its approach of using “paper where possible, plastic when useful.”
Deeside, Wales-headquartered Iceland, a frozen food retail specialist, is replacing its previous packaging with Mondi’s versatile functional barrier paper across a number of ranges. Chicken Breast Dippers, the first product to hit the shelves in such a format, will yield an 80% reduction in the amount of plastic used per year.
The functional barrier paper is made from renewable resources with Mondi managing the paper production and coating in-house, providing a fully integrated solution. It is easy for consumers to recycle the paper in existing waste streams, and as paper is the most widely recycled material in the world – 74% of paper and 83% of paper-based packaging in Europe are recycled – the solution ensures that the paper can be recycled at the end of its life, contributing to a circular economy.
“We’ve been bold in our aims to remove plastic,” said Stuart Lendrum, Iceland’s head of packaging, quality and food safety. “We were the first UK retailer to publish our plastic footprint along with our pledge to ultimately become plastic free. To deliver on this ‘Doing it Right’ promise, we knew we would need the expertise of global packaging suppliers like Mondi. Their collaborative EcoSolutions approach meant that our teams worked together to consider all elements of the product manufacturing and delivery journey. We now have a sustainable solution that is efficient to use, protects the products and meets the expectations of our customers.”
Importantly, Mondi’s functional barrier paper offers complete product protection, ensuring the product has the same shelf life as it did with previous packaging. Thanks to the high stiffness of the paper, the packaging is puncture resistant and ensures an efficient filling process that runs seamlessly on existing machinery.
Iceland aims to be the first supermarket chain in Britain to become plastic neutral, adapting to paper packaging wherever possible and offsetting its remaining plastic footprint by recovering and recycling environmental and nature-bound waste plastic.
Operating in more than 30 countries and employing approximately 26,000 people around the world, Mondi’s annual output amounts to 6 million tons of paper and market pulp production. In 2021 the company’s underlying EBITDA was €709 million, with a margin of 19.5%. Cash generated from operations amounterd to €552 million.
