Bert Jan Post, Managing Director of Tetra Pak Thailand, discusses the company’s ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ campaign
Packaging plays a critical role in the global food delivery system, helping to keep food safe, nutritious and available for people around the world. But it can also cause problems for the planet. Arriving at Tetra Pak’s office, I was there to speak to the iconic food processing and packaging solution company on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary of operating in Thailand. Our main topic was the company’s new campaign “Go Nature. Go Carton.” — an ambitious quest to develop the world’s most sustainable food package. Tetra Pak believes that paper-based carton packages have the greatest potential to solve the environmental challenges. By starting with responsibly sourced plant-based or recycled materials, neutralizing carbon emissions, improving recycling and keeping materials in use longer, the company hopes to create packaging that secures food availability around the world while protecting nature and climate.
This month sees the Thai launch of ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ What is the purpose of the campaign?
When it comes to the environment, packaging is part of the solution, but it is also part of the problem. Packaging has two sides: on the one hand, we need packaging to protect food and transport it (otherwise it will go to waste), but on the other hand once you’ve used it you wish it was gone! So, although packaging helps reduce food waste — and reducing food waste is an important environmental factor — packaging can also cause problems, for example, with litter piling up.
I can’t imagine the world in any foreseeable future where we do not have food packaging — packaging will continue to play a vital role in feeding the world by keeping food safe, nutritious and available for people everywhere. At the same time, the future needs packaging that will respect nature and protect the planet.
‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ is our global effort to shine a spotlight on Tetra Pak’s ambition to be the most environmentally sound packaging producer that we can be. There are many things we do already, as we work towards this goal, but we also realise that we have to do even more. And we want to share both our bold plans for the future, as well as the achievements we can already be proud of.
For instance, since 2017, we supply to food producers in Thailand packages with 100% of the paperboard coming from FSC™ certified forests and other controlled sources. These are woodland resources which are continuously renewed, they are replenished. We also work towards increasing carton recycling rates in Thailand — we know that in order to do recycling properly we need to encourage collaboration along the entire value chain; not only with farmers and food manufacturers but also with thought leaders and end consumers. And here in Thailand we have many opportunities to extend our collaboration and we are working towards that.
But there is more to be done. Our ambition is to be fully renewable. Currently, we stand at around 70%, by which I mean our packages are about 70% paperboard, which is a plant-based material. So we still have 30% left to go, but that's not something that we can manage locally. That is something that we as a company are doing centrally. And there's a lot of energy put into this. And this is our ambition — we aspire to become fully renewable and carbon-neutral in addition to already being fully recyclable.
What's your timeline for becoming fully renewable?
I don't have an exact estimate for when that will be achieved but I would say, the sooner the better. We already have packs that are fully renewable, we’ve had them for a number of years — but they are in our chilled packaging portfolio in the global market. We do not have them for aseptic packaging yet, and it is very important for us to have it since this is the packaging we use here in Thailand.
How so?
Let’s talk about milk. Milk is perishable. If you leave it outside for even a small amount of time it will go off. Our aseptic cartons (multi-layered packs, with thin layers of plastic and aluminium) extend the shelf life of milk to up to a year with no refrigeration required. This makes it possible to store and transport milk cheaply and safely with far less waste. This principle is at the core of what we do and we never compromise food safety. Food waste is a major problem too and sometimes gets forgotten when we talk about the bigger picture. Meanwhile, we are working to reduce the amount of plastic and aluminium in our packages, while increasing the share of paper-based content.
You refer to ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ as a campaign. How can the public become involved in it?
We are running a competition on our Thailand Facebook page to design a Tetra Pak water carton, with the ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ theme. This competition is open to everyone, from students to design professionals, and I am looking forward to seeing the imaginative designs people in Thailand can come up with.
I also want to note that you make the distinction between us as a company and the public, but I don’t see it that way. After all, though I may work for Tetra Pak, I'm also a consumer and I am also a father, and it is unavoidable to have an interest in sustainability and the future of the human race and the planet.
How popular is recycling in Thailand?
In my view many people realise that recycling is what needs to be done. And yet, I still think that many people don't make the effort personally — at least not to the extent they can and should. I think this is the area where we have to collaborate with our partners, and even our competitors, to start changing this mentality. There is already an infrastructure in place and this type of collaboration is the only way to make recycling more popular and increase its rates in Thailand.
We have seen amazing support for several of our initiatives. For example, the Green Roof Project for Friends in Need (of “PA”) Volunteers Foundation which collects used cartons to be turned into roofing sheets for victims of natural disasters. Or the Beverage Carton Recycling Project (BECARE) which managed to collect used beverage cartons to produce sheets of recycled Braille paper donated to 13 Schools for the Blind in Thailand.
What would you consider a success for the ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ campaign?
The success would be that the people involved and interested in sustainability learn to have an appreciation of what cartons are doing. But the other thing is that we can encourage people in the value chain to join us on our journey, as we cannot do this on our own. We are showing that we think these are the necessary steps to take. We have to act, get the value chain mobilised, and start making a difference now.
In addition to ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’, 2021 also sees Tetra Pak mark 40 years in Thailand, what celebrations do you have lined up?
Well, due to the pandemic, we don’t have plans for any events, but we do intend to use the occasion to reinforce our commitment to providing the best available processing and packaging solutions and to support our customers. This is a celebration of our joined efforts in making food safe and available to everyone in Thailand, as well as working towards sustainable development, and being a good corporate citizen of the Kingdom. Tetra Pak’s 40 years of advocacy for sustainable packaging solutions in Thailand, with the latest campaign ‘Go Nature. Go Carton.’ articulates that ambition.
Forty years is a significant amount of time. What have been the key milestones over the last four decades?
We’ve actually been here a little longer than that. The company entered the Thai market in 1975 but we registered as Tetra Pak Thailand in 1981, when the Dairy Farming Promotion Organization became Tetra Pak’s first customer in the country. Since then, Tetra Pak has been supporting the development of the dairy industry in Thailand, the school milk programme initiative as well as extending its scope to other sectors with hundreds of customers in both processing and packaging solutions segments. We have invested in establishing a factory and a Technical training Centre in the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate. In 2020, we have delivered 6,800 million packages.
Tetra Pak Thailand has been actively engaged in sustainable management by encouraging collaboration among public and private organisations to contribute to a better environment. Last year, in 2020, we celebrated the 10th year milestone of the Green Roof project for Friends in Need (of “PA”) Volunteers foundation -- It is one of the most important projects for our sustainability management in the country.
You mentioned Tetra Pak’s school milk programme. Can you tell us more about that, and the company’s other work with the nation’s education centres?
Tetra Pak is committed to protecting food, environment, and children around the world and in Thailand. As a pioneer of aseptic technology, we are proud to do our part by using food processing and packaging technologies to provide safe and nutritious milk for Thai children throughout the year. Even during the pandemic lockdown and schools were closed, the school milk programme continued with parents picking up the UHT milk from the schools to deliver to their children at home.
In Thailand we help to promote food safety and environmental benefits in the long-term. Last year the school milk carton recycling project was organised by Tetra Pak Thailand in collaboration with customers, industry peers and the authorities. This initiative promotes the collection of used beverage cartons, and provides information about the value of recycling and how to correctly handle packages before recycling. The aim of the project is to promote the collection of discarded UHT milk cartons from the school milk programme in hundreds of schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and recycle them into furniture, roof sheets, and other useful products.
Milk is good for children — it has multiple health benefits, including strengthening the immune system. And when milk comes in a carton, this package can be recycled. Naturally, we want to promote the collection of used beverage cartons, while teaching school children about the value of recycling. We want to contribute to developing the generation of more responsible and environmentally conscious consumers.