THE FERRERO GROUP SHARES UPDATE ON ITS 2025 PACKAGING COMMITMENT

Luxembourg, 8th May 2020, As part of its commitment to making all packaging 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, the Ferrero Group will share regular updates on its activities to deliver this. Today, in its first update, Ferrero announces a new packaging development for Kinder Joy, the Group’s exploration of chemical recycling solutions, and its partnerships to develop common eco-design guidelines for packaging.

“In October 2019, Ferrero strongly committed to more sustainable packaging and signed The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Our most recent initiatives, including the 100% recyclable Kinder Joy spoon, our exploration of chemical recycling and our partnerships for eco-design guidelines, are important steps in that journey. We look forward to providing regular updates as we support the acceleration towards a circular economy,” said Fabio Mora, Global Packaging Director of the Ferrero Group.

Ferrero engages its entire group, suppliers and partners to achieve its challenging packaging commitment. Investments in R&D and Open Innovation, as well as working in partnerships, are driving the Ferrero strategy to ensure plastics never become waste without compromising the quality and freshness of its products.

Introducing a new recyclable Kinder Joy paper spoon

Made from high-quality virgin paper that comes from a sustainably certified supply chain, the spoon was developed from the innovative design ideas of the Ferrero in-house R&D team and realised in collaboration with selected suppliers. An ultra-sonic sealing technology seals the new spoon to the plastic film without using any additional substances or additives.

In addition to passing third-party safety certifications and recyclability tests, the new Kinder Joy spoon also performed well in consumer research1; parents and children like the spoon and find it easy to use. The new Kinder Joy spoon will be phased to all EU countries in early 2021 and globally starting in 2022.

Once the roll-out is completed, the new paper spoon will deliver an estimated 45% reduction on our Kinder Joy spoon carbon footprint with a plastic reduction of over 1500 tonnes per year versus the current spoon.

Our continuous approach to innovation at Ferrero Group

• Ferrero has a long-standing history of innovation to improve the sustainability of its packaging. In line with this approach, Ferrero is exploring opportunities in the development of chemical recycling by partnering with the Reciplast project and suppliers.
• Chemical recycling can help recycle some complex structures used in plastic packaging where mechanical recycling is not an option. It also increases the availability of “clean” recycled plastic, which can be used in food packaging. In exploring the possibilities of chemical recycling, Ferrero is scouting future solutions not available today in practice and at scale.

Partnering to develop common eco-design guidelines

Ensuring that every piece of packaging can be recyclable requires designers to choose and combine materials so that the final packaging can be successfully disposed of, collected, sorted and fully recycled in practice and at scale. To achieve this ambitious goal, Ferrero is partnering with multiple stakeholders, including CEFLEX and RecyClass, to develop common eco-design guidelines that would be uniform across the industry.

CEFLEX is a collaboration of EU companies and associations representing the entire flexible packaging value chain. This partnership will focus on developing and applying design guidelines for both flexible packaging and the infrastructures to collect, sort and recycle.

RecyClass is an initiative promoted by Plastics Recyclers Europe, aiming to help the plastics value chain find the correct way to approach and evaluate the design for recycling packaging products. Through this partnership, RecyClass is providing a recyclability assessment tool, which can identify potential issues and points of improvement for the end-of-life of packaging to improve recyclability.

The Ferrero Group will continue to share announcements on these future milestones as part of the journey to make all packaging 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

1 Source: Ipsos, February 2019

Notes about our partners:

The Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX) initiative is a collaboration of over 140 European companies, associations and organisations representing the entire flexible packaging value chain. CEFLEX works across Europe to design and advance better system solutions, enhancing the performance of flexible packaging in a circular economy. Further information can be found at www.ceflex.eu, including a complete list of the stakeholders participating in the initiative.

RecyClass is an initiative promoted by Plastics Recyclers Europe, aiming to help the plastics value chain find the correct way to approach and evaluate the design for recycling packaging products to improve their recyclability.

Reciplast is a project co-funded by the European Union and the Piedmont Region that aims to improve the environmental sustainability of automotive and packaging plastic components through the development of separation, recycling and valorisation solutions of those post-consume fractions and industrial waste that still represent a critical issue in their capacity to be recycled and reused.