Packaging holds a crucial role in our daily lives, offering convenience while minimizing food waste and product damages. In alignment with our Doing better every day strategy, Almarai is dedicated to mitigating the environmental impact of packaging to meet our customers' demands. Innovation is at the forefront of our approach, recognizing that much of the packaging we utilize is vital for safeguarding and preserving products throughout the supply chain. Our focus is on striking a balance between finding sustainable packaging solutions without compromising the freshness and taste of our products. Through inventive designs, materials, and technologies, we aim to not only reduce the volume of materials entering waste streams but also enhance supply chain efficiency. We have set an ambitious target to prevent 9,000 metric tons of plastic waste from entering waste streams by 2025. To achieve this, we are investing in research and development to discover new ways of reducing packaging while maintaining a safe and enjoyable experience for our customers. Additionally, we are exploring opportunities to incorporate recycled and biodegradable materials in our packaging to further minimize our environmental impact. Committed to reducing our carbon footprint and advancing sustainability, we strive to uphold the highest quality in our products and services for our customers.
In 2022, we published our position statement on Environmental Impact of Packaging to transparently communicate our approach. We emphasized our hierarchy of strategic approach of prioritizing removing and reducing followed by reusing, recycling, and reimagining.
Our company has continued to innovate our plastic and paper packaging to ensure that the quality of our products remain while reducing the impact we have on the environment. Regarding our target of preventing 9,000 metric tons of waste by 2025, we have achieved a total of 7,247 metric tons to date. In 2023, we removed 164 metric tons of plastics and 628 annualized metric tons of paper weight. Our waste reduction initiatives have helped us reduce 4,719 metric tons of plastic packaging, 2,528 metric tons of paper used in packaging since 2018.In 2023, 67% of cardboard packaging work was done from recycled materials. As part of our packaging design process, we now make a conscious decision in the initial phases to address whether packaging is necessary. We are also seeking to use recycled materials in our products to encourage circular economy thinking into our packaging designs. Through investment at our manufacturing sites, we will be able to deliver reductions in the amount of corrugated board consumed through redesigning our outer boxes to be more resource efficient. A program is also underway to optimize pack sizes to drive efficiency improvements through the supply chain.
We officially registered one of our initiatives in the MWAN platform to solidify our commitment to protecting the planet pillar and engagement with local and national sustainability authorities.
In December 2022, Almarai conducted a commercial trial for utilizing 10% post-consumer recycled PET plastics for Zabadi cups, which ran successfully paving way for official launch in 2023. This effort is one of many ways that Almarai intends to drive demand for post-consumer recycled material to help evolve waste recycling ecosystem in the kingdom.
In late 2022, we completed trials on using HPET for our Zabadi cups and poultry trays. Beginning in 2023, this initiative is expected to reduce our packaging usage in these formats by up to 25%, without affecting the quality, strength, and sturdiness expected for the packaging. This initiative will also have secondary benefits, as it will reduce our transportation carbon footprint due to reduced weight.
We donated 200,000 plastic covers from dairy containers to the Municipality of Jeddah Governorate, which supervised the implementation of the largest mural in the world in Jeddah under the name (Jeddah Green Mural). Almarai's participation in the Jeddah Green Mural, which took 8 months of work under the auspices of the Mayor of Jeddah Governorate, Saleh bin Ali Al-Turki, with an area of 383 square meters, came as part of the company's corporate social responsibility program, which aims to improve the urban landscape and treat visual distortion.
Almarai has been working with packaging suppliers, recyclers, plastics manufacturer, National Center for Waste Management (MWAN), and Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC) to reduce waste at source and divert most waste away from landfill. In addition, Almarai has been working with other businesses from FMCG, plastics manufacturing and recycling sectors at KSA Packaging Working Group under the Federation of Saudi Chambers to engage with MWAN and SIRC to divert more waste from landfills and evolve the circular packaging economy.
7,247 metric tons of packaging reduction since 2018.
4,719 metric tons in total of plastic packaging reduction since 2018.
2,528 metric tons of paper packaging since 2018.
67% of carboard packaging from recycled materials in FY 2023.
| Goal/Target | Progress |
|---|---|
| Avoid the use of 9,000 metric tons of plastics from entering the consumer waste stream by 2025 (against a 2015 baseline) |  |
| Actively support the transformation of the packaging economy in KSA by 2025 | |
