Bangkok, THAILAND, 4 December 2021 – On National Environmental Day. Mars Petcare Thailand announced the collaboration with Second Life to launch “SWAP Recycling”, a program that assists in collecting and recycling mixed post-consumer flexible plastic packaging waste into useful end products.
At Mars, we take our responsibility for sustainable packaging seriously, so we’re working globally toward 100 percent recyclable, reusable or compostable plastic packaging and reducing our use of virgin plastic by 25% by 2025. To reach our goal, we’ll need not only recyclable materials, but we also need collection and recycling infrastructure in place and the right consumer behavior to make it happen.
Mars Petcare is committed to encouraging recycling in Thailand and SWAP Recycling builds on the collection program that ran from April to November 2021 in which pet owners were encouraged to swap their empty bags of petfood of any brand for a discount on their purchase of PEDIGREE, IAMS or WHISKAS petfood brands at participating stores nationwide. Through our partnership with Second Life, an expert in sustainable and circular plastic supply chain management, over 35,000 bags of collected soft plastic petfood packaging will be upcycled into useful products including paving blocks which will be used to pave outdoor areas of our petfood manufacturing plant in Chonburi.
Beginning next year, Mars Petcare in Thailand will sponsor the development of a digital Application for smartphones, allowing consumers to send back their flexible and complex plastic wastes to recycling centers and get rewards.
Ratchakorn Chenpattanapong, General Manager for Mars Petcare Thailand and Indochina said: “At Mars, we believe the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today and this is evidenced in our SWAP Recycling program and our collaboration with Second Life. We are certain this and more initiatives to come will play a role in supporting our Government’s efforts in expanding a wider availability of recycling infrastructure and changing consumer behaviors towards recycling. Mars is excited to be part of the program to contribute to this initiative.”
“Mars and Second Life have a shared vision for a future in which no packaging becomes waste. By collaborating to create an app-based system for returning packaging waste, we are expanding the opportunity for citizens to recycle their packaging rather than it ending up as waste,” said Tristan Lecomte, Director for Second Life.
For further information on the Mars Sustainable in a Generation Plan and climate commitments, visit www.mars.com/sustainability-plan.