Tetra Pak tackles sustainability through collaboration

Tetra Pak has introduced a collaborative innovation model with its paperboard producers to tackle the sustainability challenges of the food packaging industry.

The food processing and packaging solutions company said the traditional operating model of a linear supply chain has changed and a new partnership ecosystem model is emerging where the entire industry works in close collaboration.

This brings together not only producers and suppliers but also research institutions, universities and start-ups in an attempt to find solutions.

Tetra Pak said the global food supply chain system is responsible for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions and a third of all food is lost or wasted somewhere in the supply chain, according to the latest research.

The company also wants to phase out fossil fuel-based materials and improve the way packaging is dealt with after use.

Laurence Mott, Executive VP for Development and Engineering at Tetra Pak, said the initiative aims to find solutions to these problems.

“It’s possible to make a completely sustainable package, but you have to make it safe. And if you can’t make it at scale, you can’t minimise food waste, and you can’t serve a growing global population. In order to bring those three things together, it takes very strong collaboration.”

Mott said that the scale of the environmental challenges the world faces requires that actors within the value chain join forces to develop truly sustainable packaging solutions.

Below is a video of Tetra Pak’s paperboard partners answering what is the most important challenge facing the packaging industry today.

Video by Tetra Pak.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Stefano Garau