SWITZERLAND – Swedish-Swiss multinational food packaging and processing company Tetra Pak is championing a new partnership ecosystem model where the entire food packaging industry works in close collaboration.

Tetra Pak says that the new collaborative innovation model involving leading paperboard producers and other stakeholders in the food industry is aimed at tackling industry’s sustainability challenges.

According to a recent research, the global food supply chain system is responsible for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions with a third of all food lost or wasted somewhere in the supply chain.

To address these challenges, Tetra Pak says that significant improvements are needed to the way packaging is dealt with after use.

A traditional operating model of a linear supply chain has however proved ineffective in dealing with sustainability challenges in the food industry prompting Tetra Pak to rethink packaging, and calling for deeper collaboration within the food industry.

The Swiss based food packaging and processing technology giant says that its new collaborative model brings together not only producers and suppliers, but also research institutions, universities and start-ups in an attempt to find solutions.

Laurence Mott, Executive VP for Development and Engineering at Tetra Pak, says: “We are joining forces with our strategic partners and paperboard producers to find solutions.”

Mott notes that as individual packaging companies, it’s possible to make a completely sustainable package, however without scalability, serving a global population will become elusive and so is minimizing food wastage.

“In order to bring those three things together, it takes very strong collaboration,” Mott said adding that  the environmental challenges the world faces requires that actors within the value chain join forces to develop truly sustainable packaging solutions.

Leading paperboard producers are united in their approach to tackle carbon emissions and have an ambition to create a net-zero carbon future, says Tetra Pak.

TetraPak however notes that the challenges the industry faces include removing the thin layers of plastic and aluminium and replacing them with plant or wood fibre-based materials, developing a renewable alternative to the plastic straw, and improving the recyclability of packages.

And it is these and other challenges on which Tetra Pak and its partners are teaming up within the new collaborative innovation model.

Tetra Pak’s says its aim is to “create the world’s most sustainable package – one that secures food safety and availability while reducing the impact on the planet.”

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