FrieslandCampina has signed the European Plastic Pact, an initiative that brings companies and governments together to accelerate the transition towards a European circular plastics economy. Hein Schumacher, CEO of FrieslandCampina, met with Brussels government officials to affirm the company’s commitment and ambition regarding plastics.
In 2025, FrieslandCampina’s packaging portfolio must be reusable or recyclable. The aim is that is will be fully circular and without any emission from fossil fuels by 2050. On this journey, FrieslandCampina will also design its packaging to reduce food waste.
FrieslandCampina aims to lead with sustainability and drive a focused sustainability programme to continuously decrease its environmental impact. Sustainable packaging is one of the key pillars of the programme, and FrieslandCampina will speed up its measurable steps in this area.
Explaining FrieslandCampina’s reason for backing the European Plastic Pact, Schumacher said: “If we really want to be effective in making measurable sustainable impact, we have to work together, for the long-term. We call that cooperative sustainability. And that’s the approach that’s also needed for plastic packaging. The plastic value chain is international, with large, multi-national producers and suppliers.
“A unified European approach, working together across borders and categories, can help to scale and speed up. That is different than the national pacts that are already in place. Therefore, we support both national and international pacts.”
Last year, FrieslandCampina also signed The New Plastics Economy Commitment of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and the Dutch Plastic Pact. In October 2019, the company introduced a recyclable cheesepack with the potential to reduce plastic production by 300,000kg per year. And in January this year, a year ahead of regulation, FrieslandCampina also announced to replace – the more than 100 million – plastics straws with paper ones.
Dutch Minister of Environmental and Living, Stientje van Veldhoven, concluded: “If we want to achieve the Paris climate goals, we must look at clean raw materials as well as clean energy. I think we should be able to reuse every little bit of plastic in the future, and keep it out of our oceans and environments. So that we leave the Earth cleaner and healthier for future generations. That is not an easy task, but by cooperating with all these parties on a European scale it is possible.”
