New meat trays to reduce CO2 emissions

With a new initiative, Danish Crown will reduce CO2 emissions from their plastic trays by 54%. This is done by replacing the plastic material in the plastic trays to PET plastic, of which 80% of the plastic is recycled.

55 million plastic trays, corresponding to 1000 tons of plastic annually, are not recycled at Danish Crown’s production sites today. With a new initiative Danish Crown will replace their 55 million meat trays. In the future, they will consist of PET plastic. By recycling the new trays, the CO2 emissions will be reduced by 54%, as the new PET plastic trays consists of 80 % recycled plastic.  Over time, the goal is to increase this to 100%.

To make the meat trays 100% recyclable it requires that consumers and municipalities get better and more systematic at collecting and recycling plastic. Danish Crown tries to nudge a more recyclable mindset by conveying their efforts through their meat trays and in this way motivate consumers to recycle.

“Together with the Danish grocery chains, we are now taking a big step in the right direction, and we hope that the municipalities will make even greater efforts to get both consumers, companies and institutions to sort waste, so that among other things the meat trays can be recycled instead of ending up as district heating”, says Preben Sunke, Group COO and responsible for the sustainability strategy at Danish Crown.

If Denmark’s total plastic waste was recycled, we could save the atmosphere for 700,000 tons of C02. With the new initiative from Danish Crown we are a good step closer to exploiting the great potential.

Source: Confederation of Danish Industry