British snack food manufacturer Walkers is set to trial crisp packets made from recycled plastic bags, biscuit wrappers and other plastic packaging this year.
The trial, announced by its US parent company PepsiCo today, will take the form of a specially-designed range of Walkers crisps to hit the shelves sometime in 2022.
Walkers – famously faced by ex-England footballer Gary Lineker – fills 11 million crisp bags a day (7,000 a minute) at its Leicester factory.
But once the salted snacks have been eaten, the packaging becomes a source of persistent litter discarded on the ground, threatening wildlife and spreading toxins.
The packets are made from layers of polypropylene and aluminium that cannot be separated for recycling so must be burnt or buried in landfill, where they can take more than 100 years to degrade.
PepsiCo, which owns UK brands including Walkers crisps, has announced plans to use 100 per cent recycled or renewable content in all crisp and snack packets by 2030
PepsiCo wants to use 100 per cent recycled or renewable content in all crisp and snack packets by 2030.
It estimates it may achieve up to 40 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction per ton of packaging material by totally switching to recycled material.
Using 100 per cent recycled or renewable content in all crisp and snack packets by 2030 will eliminate the use of virgin fossil-based plastic, according to PepsiCo.
The opposite of recycled plastic, virgin plastic is plastic resin that has been newly created without any recycled materials.
'This announcement and our UK trial are exciting and important moments on our journey towards a truly circular economy for flexible plastics,' said Archana Jagannathan, senior director for sustainability at PepsiCo Europe.
'We know change is needed to reduce the amount of virgin fossil-based plastic used in our packaging, which is why we’re working with partners across the value chain to develop effective, scalable solutions to address this.'
The recycled packaging range, to be trialled this year, will be derived from previously used plastic, including crisp packets, biscuit wrappers and shopping bags.
PepsiCo estimates it may achieve up to 40 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction per ton of packaging material by totally switching to recycled material
