Ketchup lovers in the UK will be able to buy Heinz ketchup with a 100% recyclable cap, an innovation that has taken years to develop.
Heinz says the sustainability move could save nearly 300 million plastic lids from landfills each year globally.
The new recyclable cap dispenses the same amount of ketchup as a normal lid, but can also help consumers squeeze more sauce out of the bottles when they’re nearly empty.
Developing its first ever 100% recyclable cap has taken owner Kraft Heinz over nine years and 185,000 product development hours. It has also been through 45 iterations and racked up £934,000 ($1.2 million) in development costs.
The move is part of a wider push from Kraft Heinz, which said last July that it will reduce its use of virgin plastic globally by 20% by 2030 – estimated to be around approximately 100 million pounds of virgin plastic.
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The previous version used several types of plastic which made recycling harder, while the new bottle cap is made from just one material: mono-material polypropene (PP).
Matthias Hammersen, sales director, food market at Berry Global, said: “Heinz set us the kind of challenge that suits us and our development departments best: to reconstruct the design of the cap to make it 100% recyclable, without affecting the performance that millions of consumers know and love.
“We’re delighted that the finished result exceeds our initial expectations and actually improves the consumer experience.”
The recyclable cap is being introduced in the UK on 400ml and bigger top-down bottles of tomato ketchup, as well as the 50% less sugar and salt varieties.
Like many FMCG companies, Kraft Heinz has made a big play showcasing its ESG credentials in recent years.
In October last year, it was revealed Kraft Heinz procured 14.2% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2022, as published in its latest 2023 ESG report.
