As of 2023, 61% of Mars packaging is designed to be recyclable, reusable or compostable, up from 57% in 2022 but significantly short of 100% by 2025, and the company used an average of 1.5% recycled content across its packaging portfolio, significantly short of 30% by 2025. | MarsMM/Shutterstock
Brand owner Mars says the design and infrastructure changes that are needed to meet its recycling goals are “taking longer than we anticipated” – and that it will miss certain goals it set for 2025.
When it signed onto the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment, Mars set targets that 100% of its packaging would be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025; that it would reduce its use of virgin plastic by 25% by 2025 versus 2019; and that it would increase its recycled content to 30% PCR by 2025.
The company has made progress toward one of those goals, slight progress toward another, and has actually backslid on one, according to its latest sustainability report, published on July 24.
As of 2023, 61% of Mars packaging is designed to be recyclable, reusable or compostable, up from 57% in 2022, and the company used an average of only 1.5% recycled content across its packaging portfolio.
“We are making good progress, and we would expect that to continue to accelerate,” the company wrote. “However, the design and infrastructure changes needed are taking longer than we anticipated when we signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Global Commitments, and we are unlikely to fully meet them by the end of 2025.”
On the third point, virgin plastic reduction, the company has moved in the other direction: Against a 2019 baseline of 180,000 metric tons of plastic packaging, Mars used 210,000 metric tons of plastic packaging in 2023, the company reported. And with recycled content totaling 1.5%, or 3,150 metric tons, that suggests Mars used 206,850 metric tons of virgin resin in 2023, which is 15% higher than the 2019 baseline.
Still, Mars reported in the latest sustainability update that it is “investing millions of dollars to improve the recyclability of our packaging, increase the amount of food-safe, recycled content and to reduce the use of virgin plastic.”
Mars joins a handful of other brand owners in acknowledging the 2025 targets are unlikely to be reached by 2025, including Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive and PepsiCo. The U.S. Plastics Pact, which exists to help signatories meet their Ellen MacArthur Foundation pledges, has also modified its goals to reflect the current pace of progress.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has consistently stated since 2022 that, although progress is being made, “key 2025 targets are expected to be missed.”
In its 2022 progress report, the organization elaborated that the target of recyclable, compostable or reusable packaging “will almost certainly be missed by most organizations, with flexible packaging and lack of infrastructure being the main barrier.” Mars, the company noted in its sustainability report, uses a significant quantity of flexible packaging.