Plastic Use in Product Packaging
Management information
Relevance to our business
Due to the fact our customers are businesses, many of our products, such as oils and fats, are shipped in bulk via tank trucks, ton containers, and steel drums. Other products, such as chocolate, whipping cream and solid fats, are packaged in plastic and shipped in cardboard boxes. Plastic accounts for about 20% of the entire volume of packaging materials we use. We recognize the problems with plastic and believe it is essential to reduce our usage.
Basic approach
Packaging serves three key functions: keeping food safe to eat; maintaining food quality; and communicating product information. Amid growing concerns about resource depletion and marine plastic pollution, we aim to reduce our plastic use by reducing (thinning, decreasing weight, and replacing with a recyclable material), reusing, and recycling plastic packaging materials in a manner that also maintains these three functions.
Management system
Initiatives relating to plastic use in product packaging are carried out by each Group company. In addition, the Production Productivity Management Group at Fuji Oil Holdings Inc. collects information on initiatives for reducing environmental impact, such as circular economy, the 3Rs concept (reduce, reuse, recycle), and plastic alternatives with reduced fossil content. The collected information is then shared with relevant Group companies.
Specific initiatives
Reducing plastic use
To reduce plastic use, Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. buys pallets made of recycled plastic and sells plastic pallets we can no longer use at our factories to other companies for reusing. In addition, Fuji Fresh Foods Co., Ltd. began replacing the material used in food packaging films with environmentally responsible recycled PET containing 80% recycled resin.