16 Dec 2021

SABIC, Mars Petcare and Huhtamaki extend collaboration to wet pet food packaging based on certified circular polypropylene for SHEBA® brand

SITTARD, THE NETHERLANDS, December 16, 2021 - SABIC, Mars Petcare and Huhtamaki have announced that their successful collaboration in pet food packaging using certified circular polypropylene (PP) from SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE^™ portfolio has taken the next step and will be used for innovative packaging solutions for the leading cat food SHEBA^® brand. Mars Petcare, as part of Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love, has adopted a flexible film structure with SABIC^® PP BCT18F impact copolymer for retort pouches that are used in the packaging of wet pet food products for SHEBA^®. The multi-layer film is manufactured by Huhtamaki, a key global supplier of sustainable packaging solutions to customers around the world.

This latest achievement is another example of SABIC’s commitment to working to accelerate a circular economy to ensure plastic products are designed, produced, used and recycled more sustainably. “We are very pleased about the ongoing strategic efforts with Mars and Huhtamaki,” states Lada Kurelec, General Manager PP, PET, PS, PVC, PU & Elastomers Businesses for Petrochemicals at SABIC. “The transformation of the industry towards a circular economy requires unprecedented innovation and intensive collaboration across the value chain. Together, we have set another milestone on this exciting journey.”

The new wet pet food retort pouch solution continues the partners’ efforts to support a circular economy by incorporating advanced recycled content in pet food packaging. “We are pleased to share the progress in our sustainable pet food packaging journey. Over the past year, we have been closely working with SABIC and Huhtamaki, continually testing-and-learning and scaling up the recycled plastic content in our petfood packs. As part of our Sustainable in a Generation plan, we are committed to doing our part to help drive a circular economy, which includes redesigning our packages for circularity. The fact that we are now able to introduce recycled content into our SHEBA^® pouches helps us accelerate our journey to achieve 30% average recycled content in our plastic packaging and to reduce by 25% our use of virgin plastic” says Barry Parkin, Chief Procurement and Sustainability Officer at Mars, Incorporated.

In November 2020, Mars, Incorporated had announced its ambition to introduce food safe recycled content polypropylene into its pet food packaging to do its part in building a circular economy where no packaging becomes waste. In partnership with SABIC and Huhtamaki, the goal was to develop and deploy recycled plastic in pet food brands.

One of the most critical issues to overcome for the joint development team were the technical challenges involved in receiving approval for the complex new packaging structure. Wet food retort packaging is associated with demanding thermal processing conditions to ensure the highest food quality and help Mars Petcare achieve its purpose of creating a better world for pets. By using material from a recycled source under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS program, it proves that under even the most challenging of packaging processed, recycled content can be safe and a reality for the future.

Marco Hilty, President of Huhtamaki’s Flexible Packaging business segment said: “We are fully committed to partnering with global leaders to develop solutions which drive the transition to a circular economy. We are proud to work with Mars and SABIC on a concrete solution which can be used globally. Successfully processing recycled polymers into high-quality, easy tear films for wet retort packaging at an industrial scale is a significant milestone in delivering on our ambition to have more than 80% of our raw materials renewable or recycled. This is important for consumers and in line with our ambitious 2030 strategy.”

Huhtamaki uses the certified circular polymer as a phthalate-free and gel-controlled film layer, which lends the flexible pouches high impact strength and puncture resistance even at low temperatures down to -20°C. For wet food packaging, the pouches must also be capable of withstanding a retort temperature of 135°C for 60 minutes. Even higher thermal resistance of up to 160°C may be needed in freezer-to-oven applications.

SABIC’s certified circular polymers form part of the company’s TRUCIRCLE portfolio and services for circular solutions. The offering also includes design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified renewable polymers from bio-based feedstock and closed loop initiatives to recycle plastic back into high quality applications and help prevent valuable used plastics from becoming waste.

Read more about SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE portfolio here.

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Notes for editors

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ABOUT SABIC

SABIC is a global diversified chemicals company, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It manufactures on a global scale in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, making distinctly different kinds of products: chemicals, commodity and high performance plastics, agri-nutrients and metals.

SABIC supports its customers by identifying and developing opportunities in key end-use applications such as construction, medical devices, packaging, agri-nutrients, electrical and electronics, transportation and clean energy. Production in 2020 was 60.8 million metric tons.

The company has more than 32,000 employees worldwide and operates in around 50 countries. Fostering innovation and a spirit of ingenuity, SABIC has 9,946 global patent filings, and has significant research resources with innovation hubs in five key geographies – USA, Europe, Middle East, South Asia and North Asia.

ABOUT MARS PETCARE

Part of Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love, the almost 100,000 Associates across 130 countries in Mars Petcare are dedicated to one purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS. With 85 years of experience, our portfolio of almost 50 brands serves the health and nutrition needs of the world’s pets – including brands PEDIGREE^®, WHISKAS^®, ROYALCANIN^®, NUTRO^™, GREENIES^™, SHEBA^®, CESAR^®,IAMS^™ and EUKANUBA^™ as well as The WALTHAM^™ Centre for Pet Nutrition which has advanced research in the nutrition and health of pets for over 50 years. Mars Petcare is also a leading veterinary health provider through a network of over 2,000 pet hospitals including BANFIELD^™, BLUEPEARL^™, PET PARTNERS^™, VCA^™, LINNAEUS^™ and ANICURA^™. We’re also active in innovation and technology for pets, with WISDOM PANEL^™ genetic health screening and DNA testing for dogs, the WHISTLE^™ GPS dog tracker, and LEAP VENTURE STUDIO accelerator and COMPANION FUND^™ programs that drive innovation and disruption in the pet care industry. As a family business and guided by our principles, we are privileged with the flexibility to fight for what we believe in – and we choose to fight for: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS.

ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATED

For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE^®, EXTRA^®, M&M’s^®, MILKY WAY^®, SNICKERS^®, TWIX^®, ORBIT^®, PEDIGREE^®, ROYAL CANIN^®, SKITTLES^®, BEN’S ORIGINAL^™, WHISKAS^®, COCOAVIA^®, and 5^™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals^™, BluePearl^®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners^™, and VCA^™.

We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles — Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom — inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive. For more information about Mars, please visit mars.com.

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

ABOUT HUHTAMAKI

Huhtamaki is a key global provider of sustainable packaging solutions for consumers around the world, enabling wellbeing and convenience. Our innovative products protect on-the-go and on-the-shelf food and beverages, ensuring hygiene and safety, and help prevent food waste. We embed sustainability in everything we do. We are committed to achieving carbon neutral production and designing all our products to be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2030.

We are a participant in the UN Global Compact and EcoVadis has awarded Huhtamaki with the Gold medal for performance in sustainability. To play our part in managing climate change, we have set science-based targets that have been approved and validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.

With 100 years of history and a strong Nordic heritage we operate in 36 countries and 84 sites around the world. Our values Care Dare Deliver guide our decisions and help our team of 19,400 employees make a difference where it matters. Our 2020 net sales totaled EUR 3.3 billion. Huhtamaki Group is headquartered in Espoo, Finland and our parent company, Huhtamäki Oyj, is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. Find out more about how we are protecting food, people and the planet on www.huhtamaki.com.