One Year Update

Results

Building on the success of the program in the United States, Kraft Canada was TerraCycle’s inaugural partner in Canada in 2010. Three brigades were created in the first year of the program: the Drink Pouch brigade (brought to you by Kool Aid Jammers and Del Monte juices); the Cookies and Crackers brigade (brought to you by Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks) and the Nut and Nut snacks brigades (brought to you by Back to Nature). The partnership has been an effective way for Kraft Foods to prevent non-recyclable waste from entering landfills. We’re measuring our success by how many brigades TerraCycle has already launched and how much packaging is diverted from landfills. Since the partnership began, there are now more than 2,400 brigade locations and 300,000 people collecting waste across Canada, in schools, universities, places of worship, and various non-profit organizations. To date, Kraft Canada has diverted more than 590,000 packages from landfills from Del Monte juices and Kool-Aid Jammers drink pouches, Mr. Christie’s Snack Paks cookie wrappers and Back to Nature & other nut and snack packaging. Both the Kool Aid Jammers and the Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks promote the TerraCycle program on their packages, helping inform the consumer and spread the word about upcycling. More details about Terracycle Inc. can be found on www.terracycle.ca.

Six Month Update

Challenge

Kraft Foods is committed to reducing and improving its packaging. We are continually investigating new options and technologies.  And, we’re partnering with innovative companies to help us find solutions for packaging that is not recyclable.

Currently, we have not found an acceptable alternative to the flexible film that we use to package many products. While there are many advantages to flexible film: it is lightweight, right-sized to the product, and transports well – there are not many recycling facilities across Canada which recycle flexible, multi-layer film.

And, consumers tell us often that post consumer packaging waste is a problem that needs attention.  Some materials we use don’t easily lend themselves to being recycled.

Kraft Foods was in need of an end-of-life solution for our packaging.

Strategy

While we continue to look for packaging alternatives that deliver on our food safety, quality, and cost expectations while being recyclable, we have partnered with an innovative firm – TerraCycle – a unique “upcycling” company that helps prevent post-consumer and post-industrial packaging waste from ending up in landfills.  TerraCycle packaging waste is turned into high-quality merchandise like backpacks, tote bags, yoga bags, umbrellas and kites.

Kraft Canada is the first major Canadian business to sponsor the collection of used packaging associated with its products. Several Kraft Canada brands–Kool-Aid Jammers and Del Montebeverages; Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks and other Mr. Christie cookies and crackers (including new Kraft Dinner Crackers Snack Packs); and Back to Nature nuts and trail mixes — will be sponsoring collection efforts.

How the Program Works

The program is simple. Any group wishing to collect packaging waste (A community group or even a school) signs up on the TerraCycle (www.terracycle.ca) website and indicates which brigade it would like to participate in: Drink Pouches, Cookie and Cracker Wrappers or Nut Snacks – or any combination of the three.

Then, the group collects used drink pouches and snack packaging and sends them to TerraCycle for “upcycling.”  TerraCycle cleans and sorts the waste. All shipping costs are pre-paid by TerraCycle.

On behalf of the brigade, TerraCycle donates 2 cents per pouch or package collected. The group can designate any not for profit or charitable organization of their choice to receive this donation – be it an environmental organization, their favourite charity, or even their own school.

The waste is then converted into cool merchandize to be sold at major retailers across Canada – therefore completing the “waste loop”.

• The Drink Pouch Brigade collects used Kool-Aid Jammers and Del Monte beverages drink pouches.  The used pouches are returned to TerraCycle and sewn into tote bags, handbags and other durable items that will be available in mid-2011 at select Canadian retailers.

• The Cookie/Cracker Wrapper Brigade collects used Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks and other Mr.Christie cookies and crackers wrappers (including new Kraft Dinner Crackers Snack Packs).  TerraCycle will use proprietary technology to fuse the wrappers together into sheets of waterproof fabric, which then can be made into umbrellas, shower curtains, backpacks, placemats and much more.

• The Back to Nature Nut Snacks Brigade collects Back to Nature packages as well as ANY nut package currently available on the market – be it in a tin, plastic pouch or other container. Back to Nature is looking to clean up the nut category by providing recycling options for all nut packaging out in the marketplace today!

We selected TerraCycle as a partner not only because they’ve found an innovative way to help prevent packaging waste from ending up in landfills but because of the excellent opportunity to educate the consumer on the benefits of recycling.

And with a monetary reward as incentive to recycle, the programs help schools, community groups, charities and non-profits across the country earn funds to support local activities.

This partnership is just one part of Kraft’s larger sustainability strategy.

• - Six focus areas: agricultural commodities; packaging; energy; water; waste; transportation/distribution
• - We’ve set some aggressive goals to be achieved by the end of 2011 (with a base year of 2005.
• - Packaging is a key focus area as it’s the first and last experience consumers have with our product. We’re addressing packaging through sourcing, design and end of life.
• - We have achieved our goal of eliminating 150 million pounds (over 68 million kg) of packaging material from our product line a full year early!

Results

Building on the success of the program in the United States, Kraft Canada was TerraCycle’s inaugural partner in Canada in 2010. Three brigades were created in the first year of the program: the Drink Pouch brigade (brought to you by Kool Aid Jammers and Del Monte juices); the Cookies and Crackers brigade (brought to you by Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks) and the Nut and Nut snacks brigades (brought to you by Back to Nature).

The partnership has been an effective way for Kraft Foods to prevent non-recyclable waste from entering landfills.  We’re measuring our success by how many brigades TerraCycle has already launched and how much packaging is diverted from landfills.

Since the partnership began, there are now more than 2,400 brigade locations and 300,000 people collecting waste across Canada, in schools, universities, places of worship, and various non-profit organizations.  To date, Kraft Canada has diverted more than 590,000 packages from landfills from Del Monte juicesand Kool-Aid Jammers drink pouches, Mr. Christie’s Snack Pakscookie wrappers andBack to Nature & other nut and snack packaging.

Both the Kool Aid Jammers and the Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks promote the TerraCycle program on their packages, helping inform the consumer and spread the word about upcycling.

More details about Terracycle Inc. can be found on www.terracycle.ca.