Dairy producer switches to 50% recycled packaging material and wins award

The dairy producer TINE wins Norwegian Plastic Promise Award (Plastløfteprisen) in the category ‘Increased use of recycled plastic’ with its new pots for sour cream products.

TINE, Norway’s leading dairy producer, recently changed the packaging for three of its dairy products by switching from pots made of polystyrene (PS) to pots of polypropylene (PP) which include 50% recycled polypropylene (rPP).

Now, TINE’s redesigned pot has been recognised with the Norwegian Plastic Promise Award (Plastløfteprisen) in the category of ‘Increased use of recycled plastic’. TINE uses the rPP-content pots for its sour cream products, including Rømme, a delicious Norwegian version of sour cream.

TINE’s head of sustainability Bjørn Malm says: “At TINE, we want all our packaging to be made of renewable or recycled material by 2025. Our new packaging solution for sour cream and Rømme is an important step towards our goal.”

By using rPP in its new packaging, TINE reduces the need for extra plastic production which conserves valuable virgin resources. At the same time, the company shows support for the EU goal of recycling 50% of all plastic packaging in 2025 and 55% in 2030.

Developed in collaboration with Berry Superfos
TINE has developed its successful new pots together with Berry Superfos which offers a broad range of packaging, including recycled material solutions. The pots are produced at the Berry Superfos facility in Lidköping, Sweden.

Roland Lingman, Director Sales & Marketing at Berry Superfos says: “In our production, we calculate the content of 50% recycled polypropylene for food packaging by using the ISCC PLUS certified mass balance approach. Several Berry Superfos facilities across Europe are ISCC PLUS certified to verify that the mass balance accounting follows predefined and transparent rules.”

Currently, the most common form of recycling requiring an ISCC PLUS certification is pyrolysis which breaks down used plastic into chemical feedstocks of virgin-quality, recycled polypropylene and polyethylene. These are then included in the production of new plastic packaging as is the case for TINE’s sour cream pots. 

The Plastic Promise in Norway
The Norwegian Plastic Promise Award is part of the plastic promise initiative which was started in 2019 by Grønt Punkt Norway. Its aim is to encourage more companies to join the circular plastic economy by increasing the use of recycled plastic, reducing unnecessary use of plastic, and designing for recycling.

Read previously published full story about TINE’s change to rPP-content pots.