UK – Pot Noodle, the largest instant hot snack brand in the UK, has announced a pilot to switch from using virgin plastic pots to new paper pot packaging, in a bid to halve its use of virgin plastic by 2025.
The new paper pot is made with 90% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and will be exclusively available at Tesco. The trial will consist of 500,000 pots of the brand’s Chicken and Mushroom flavour.
The freshness and safety of the products are ensured by a single layer of ultra-thin plastic film, which protects the paper when water is added but doesn’t inhibit the recyclability of the pot.
According to the parent company Unilever, the success of the trial could lead to the integration of paper pots into the full Pot Noodle range, with the potential to remove 4,000 tonnes of virgin plastic each year.
Unilever UK & Ireland’s general manager foods Andre Burger said: “From material development and testing through to new manufacturing processes and capabilities, big packaging innovations require the investment of time and expertise across many teams and partners.
“There have been plenty of challenges along the way, but we are committed to reducing the plastic in our packaging and to a paper-based future for our pots, without compromising on the Pot Noodle experience our shoppers know and love.
“We are now excited to learn from this initial trial with the ambition of bringing our paper pots to more shoppers across the UK in the near future.”
Consumers can recycle the new pots at home along with other cardboard and paper packaging. The on-pack recycling label (OPRL) provides clear guidance to shoppers on how to properly dispose of the Pot Noodle packaging.
The Pot noodle sauce sachets are currently not recyclable at home, but they can be brought to selected retailers where there are soft plastic collection points.
Unilever has set targets to achieve net-zero emissions for its products by 2039. They aim to have a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023 and to make all of their products biodegradable by 2030. Additionally, Unilever plans to scale up regenerative agriculture.
Furthermore, Unilever is aiming to halve the amount of virgin plastic it uses in its packaging by 2025 while achieving an absolute reduction of more than 100,000 tonnes in plastic usage.
The company has also committed to collecting and processing more packaging than it sells and to ensuring that 100% of its plastic packaging is designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Tesco’s packaging campaigns manager, Courtney Pallett, stated, “Removing or reducing plastic wherever we can remains a key focus for us, so we’re excited to work with Unilever to exclusively trial Pot Noodle’s new sustainably sourced, FSC-certified paper packaging and to continue to work together to help protect our planet.”
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