Moy Park reduces packaging by 10% in 12 months

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Tom Arkwright, senior packaging technologist, and Matt Harris, head of packaging. Credit: Moy Park

Food manufacturer Moy Park reduced its overall packaging by 10% in the past 12 months, the firm has announced.

The Northern Ireland based meat and poultry producer said that this represents a significant milestone for its new sustainable packaging strategy.

The 10% reduction achieved is the result of the company’s 4R approach – remove, reduce, recycle and research. This strategy is designed to cut the firm’s overall packaging by 5% year-on-year, while also increasing the percentage of recyclable packaging by 5%.

Moy Park has collaborated with supply chain partners and innovated across the business to reach the impressive milestone. This includes initiatives focusing on removing unnecessary plastic components, reducing plastic that remains, developing recyclable options and adopting plastics that are inclusive of recycled content.

Headquartered in Craigavon, Moy Park is one of the UK’s leading food companies and Northern Ireland’s largest private sector business. It operates 30 farms across Europe and has 35m chickens on the ground at any one time.

‘Ambitious targets set’

Matt Harris, head of packaging at Moy Park, said that the efforts to ensure the packaging used across the business is more sustainable will play a significant role in the firm meeting its target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040.

We deliberately set ambitious targets to deliver real results that can be felt by our customers and consumers,” Harris continued.

“Our ambition is to make even more progress and we’re working closely across departments, and with external expertise, to extend our current packaging strategy. This will reflect best practice guidance on packaging design, future legislation, and consumer and shopper insights.  We already have exciting partner collaborations in the pipeline that will further reduce our reliance on plastic and support consumer and customer goals to recycle more.”

In other news, members of the GMB Union working at a Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate facility in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, have voted in favour of a 10.4% pay rise and a one-off payment to help with the cost of living.