https://packagingeurope.com/sustainability-awards
https://www.kraftheinzcompany.com/
The Amazing Linda Roman and John Ryan from the Kraft Heinz company discussing their global efforts to improve the sustainability of their packaging.
Can packaging be reusable?
Is it OK to use Ketchup on Kraft Mac and Cheese?
How are companies working with the local and international governments to be more sustainable?
Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/
https://specright.com/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1329820053/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=corygat
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.
This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.
https://packagingeurope.com/sustainability-awards
https://www.kraftheinzcompany.com/
The Amazing Linda Roman and John Ryan from the Kraft Heinz company discussing their global efforts to improve the sustainability of their packaging.
Can packaging be reusable?
Is it OK to use Ketchup on Kraft Mac and Cheese?
How are companies working with the local and international governments to be more sustainable?
Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/
https://specright.com/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1329820053/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=corygat
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.
This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.
Alright, well thank you so much. I am here with Linda Roman and John Ryan from the Kraft Heinz company. And we're talking about sustainable packaging. We're live from Packaging Europe. the Sustainable Packaging Summit, if you could both introduce yourselves and, speak just a little bit about what you do, that would be wonderful.
Linda Roman:Sure. Linda Roman. I've been with Kraft Heinz Combined over 20 years, and today my team focuses on packaging. based in North America and we, identify technology unlocks and partnerships across the entire value chain to hit against our business strategies and growth and ESG.
Cory Connors:Wonderful. You do a great job. I know that. We've met before many times. Yes, we have. I'm John
John Ryan:Ryan. So I'm the R& D Packaging Director for International Business. Our international business is everywhere apart from North America. The tasks that we do within my team range everything from NPD to installation and commissioning of production facilities and lines, and most importantly, of course, ESG, Environmental Governments, Social
Linda Roman:Governments. And our teams work so collaboratively together to not duplicate efforts, but really complement. I think
John Ryan:that's one of the secrets of our success. Absolutely. Without a doubt. It's our collaboration. We've got an amazing partner in Linda and Linda's entire team. And you absolutely hit it right nail in the head. And as we conquer and divide, we absolutely frown upon duplication. Right.
Linda Roman:And I think that's the biggest part. So I know we're jumping off on this, but when we think about collaboration and partnership a lot of times We talk about it externally, but for us, it's also about internally. You have some of the large CPG companies and there's so many people, it's hard to really connect internally. And that's one of the big things that we work hard to do, make sure our teams are doing so we can capitalize on the synergies and learnings that we can get across. So it's tremendous.
Cory Connors:Yeah. Well, I can attest that, my family enjoys, Kraft mac and cheese and Heinz ketchup all in the same meal. So we collaborate with your products already. That's right.
John Ryan:The first packaging actually that the Henry J. Hines that launched into the market was a glass jar for horseradish and his reason behind that was transparency. He wanted to show the purity of the product and also the quality of the product and that's the idea behind it from a commercial point of view to, and it's to instigate the conversations around,
Cory Connors:But we had a couple things that you wanted to speak to. do you want to... Focus on those. Yeah, I
Linda Roman:think, as we talk about collaboration, and that's what this is all about. So Tim Sykes and team that really set this up was, how do we make sure we're bringing people from across the value chain together to really talk about the challenges that they have and the opportunities and ways to collaborate. And the one thing about sustainability and everybody, every year we continue to ramp up the game, which is collaborating more and more. Like we just talked about it internally, but externally, How are we connecting with other CPGs that may have similar challenges as us, in the same arena, right? How are we connecting with industry associations? And I think it was really heartening to see APR and RESIT class together, and they'll be presenting tomorrow. Bring it, because the biggest challenge for us is around consistency, and that we're all going towards the same target. So, so being able to, identify what the definition of recyclability is today, that's going to evolve and be... consistent for the next 5, 10, 20 years is contingent upon industry collaboration and consensus. And I think that's exciting to see all this come together for them. I
John Ryan:completely agree. It's impossible for Kraft Heinz to do it by themselves. It's impossible for one company to do it by themselves. That's why we have to come together. And it's a joint discussion on what we move towards, but also infrastructure. Infrastructure is a big conversation that we really need to have. I saw a very shocking slide a couple of days ago from one of my team members that showed that only six countries in Europe recycle plastic at scale. That's quite disheartening. These are conversations that we all need to have together.
Cory Connors:Incredible. Remember the first time we talked about Reusable bottles for ketchup, your glass bottles were all, the only thing you had to change was the adhesive on the label to make it all of a sudden reusable. Is that going to scale or how is that going? We're actually
Linda Roman:continuing to pilot and we piloted in the UK, piloting in the US and we continue to look at ways to identify other opportunities in the refill arena or reuse arena.
John Ryan:Excellent. I think for reuse, I think the biggest. So this opportunity for us all is to bring the consumer on the journey. Yes. And that's the most important thing. The consumer has to be part of our journey. Because they're the ones who are going to interact, they're the ones who are changing their shopping style too. And what I think we've done, and I don't mean just Kraft Heinz by ourselves, but I think as industry, we've focused on what it is for us. We need to change the focus, or switch the focus, towards consumers more so. And really bring them on the journey and tell them about it. inform them why we're doing this, because, I saw P& G this morning get up and talk about how they've done a refill pouch and it wasn't so successful because the consumer expected a cost price impact much more, much greater than they actually received. Now, without the consumer understanding what it is that we're trying to do, and then going for a cost saving muddies the waters, it brings unclarity to the topic itself. And that's where we need to go out and talk, why we have a patch, why we're refilling, how this impacts our planet in language that the consumer understands.
Cory Connors:You're asking people to change the way they behave. And that is such a big task. And you're asking them to reform habits that they've had for their whole lives and ways of doing things that they've... Watch their parents do and have adopted probably, right? They
Linda Roman:have to understand what's the benefit for them And sometimes that's hard to make that connection and that's something we have to probably do more work to help communicate in the future. So that one, it's a journey. this whole effort is a journey But if you think about it, some of them are a little bit longer We have to figure a lot, figure out a lot on the way. And so that's what we're trying
Cory Connors:to do. Excellent. Anything else you want to talk about before we wrap up?
John Ryan:I would love to see us coming together as industry, to support legislation. Yes. I feel when, in relation to legislation, a lot of legislation out there is not based on the science based facts. and this is where industry needs to step up and really be part of our, because we want to drive legislation. PPWR is a great example. There's a really an awful lot of really good stuff in there. Yes. We need to take all those golden nuggets and take them together. But we also, there is also some stuff in there that's questionable and that's where we need to come together to, to be one voice and that's industry and legislators as
Cory Connors:one voice. Well said. And that's been a real disconnect, hasn't it? the industry and the government not connecting and maybe the third branch there is the, consumer saying, Hey, what about us? think about us too while you're making all these new rules, right?
John Ryan:we've, a mantra within Kraft Heinz, and that is consumer first. Yeah. And that's what we have to do. We have to think that way. Well said.