Mondi partners Tesco in major environmental drive

Packaging and paper group Mondi has joined forces with Tesco Central Europe on a wide-ranging environmental partnership, aimed at significantly reducing the retailer’s corrugated waste.

The arrangement will see Mondi purchase Tesco’s warehouse corrugated waste to create recycled paper for the retailers’ shopping bags. Tesco said that this will support its goal of a net zero emissions, as it seeks to remove, reduce, reuse and recycle where possible.
 
Mondi will use the retailer’s corrugated waste to produce its EcoVantage paper grade, in which recycled and fresh fibres are combined to achieve a recyclable and food standards-compliant shopping bag.
 
The packaging and paper group business creates this paper grade as part of its EcoSolutions strategy, which is aimed at helping customers reduce their impact on the environment. EcoVantage paper is produced at Mondi’s mill in the Czech Republic.


Nóra Hevesi, head of communication at Tesco in Hungary, said the retailer has a target of making packaging 100% recyclable by 2025, and the new arrangement with Mondi will go a long way towards reaching this goal.
 
“We’ve already made great progress by removing 454 tonnes of hard-to-recycle material from our packaging so far, and it is exciting that we are able to close the loop by recycling our warehouse paper waste and use the recycled fibres in our shopper bags,” Hevesi said.
 
“We know how important sustainable and high quality shopping bags are to our customers, so we are communicating the recycled fibre content and the closed loop concept on the underside of the shopping bags as part of our consumer information.”
 
Tesco created using Mondi’s EcoVantage paper are already being used in a pilot trial at Tesco stores across Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
 
Paulus Goess, sales director for speciality kraft paper at Mondi, added: “Our EcoSolutions approach means we collaborate very closely with our customers to create the best possible product for their needs – using paper where possible and plastic when useful.
 
“We have been working on this project with Tesco for over two years, with the aim of reusing their warehouse waste to create a quality product that is strong in terms of performance, based on renewable resources, uses recycled materials and can in turn be fully recycled and ultimately contribute to a circular economy.
 
“Our strong EcoVantage paper allows consumers to re-use the shopping bag multiple times despite the recycled content and Tesco encourages its consumers to do so.”