Lotus Bakeries makes strides in sustainability

Lotus Bakeries has introduced recycled packaging for its Lotus Biscoff cookies brand. The first wrappers with recycled material have entered the Spanish market, starting with the Lotus Biscoff 250g packaging. 

While the packs are already recyclable in Spain, 30 percent recycled material is allocated to the Lotus Biscoff 250g packaging using the ISCC mass balance approach, certifying the origin and supply chain of the material. 

Sustainable packaging engineer at Lotus Laetitia Vlaminck said: ‘In our packaging strategy, we always aim for the optimum overall picture. We want to improve sustainability as a whole. So, we don’t intend to engage in burden shifting, for example by switching from plastic to an alternative like paper, which is perceived as more sustainable, but end up using much more material, reducing the shelf life of our cookies and not gaining the full benefit from the efficiency of our ovens. 

Under the heading of ‘design for tomorrow’, Lotus Bakeries is - improving the sustainability of its packaging, so that the materials can be reused. Having already switched to PVDC-free film for all individually packaged and twin Biscoff packs in 2020, this was rolled out across the entire Biscoff range in 2021. 

This means that the packaging material for Biscoff is PVDC-free across the whole line bringing the company close to 100 percent recyclability for Biscoff Cookies.  

A special packaging line has also been set up for packaging Biscoff Crumb, which was previously outsourced to a copacker. This also involved new packaging, that is easier to recycle.  

‘Whereas before we used a plastic bag with a paper sticker on it – which made it harder to recycle – we now use a printed bag without a sticker, or with a plastic sticker that can be recycled,’ Vlaminck added. 

In the Dutch market, Lotus Bakeries has also switched to PET for Enkhuizer product tubs, which were previously made from polystyrene. This material does not tend to be collected or recycled around the world, while PET is recycled on a larger scale and can also be made from recycled material. These changes have raised recyclability score to 97.1 percent for the Lotus Bakeries Group as a whole.  

The company targeted to make all packaging for waffles, cakes and pastries recyclable by the end of 2022.  

The brand has shifted to a thinner cardboard for its 300 Biscoff catering case saving 36.5 tons cardboard every year and 17 less trucks are needed to transport the cardboard to the factory. 

In addition, the brand has made the plastic bottle for Biscoff topping lighter, saving 800kg of plastic every year. The stretch film around pallets of Lotus Biscoff spread is now thinner, saving around one ton of plastic per year. 

The company will switch to a thinner packaging film for Lotus Biscoff fresh packs saving 13.5 tons of packaging material annually.  

Circular economy 

Lotus Bakeries aims to keep packaging materials in the loop as long as possible, by using recycled material. Where this is not feasible, it chooses sustainable or renewable materials where possible. 

It uses cardboard boxes as recycled material.  

‘It’s more difficult with plastic, as the recycling facilities for this aren’t quite there yet,’ Vlaminck explained. The company has is using 30 percent recycled material in the shrink film around trays of Lotus Biscoff spread reducing amount of material for this film by 10 percent.  

It is more complicated for the wrappers for use in direct contact with food. ‘Here, we have to be careful about food safety,’ Vlaminck explained. ‘Unfortunately, by law, mechanical recycling doesn’t allow recycled materials to be used in packaging that comes into contact with food. This means that, until recently, we couldn’t use any recycled material for this. However, a method is currently being developed that would make this possible after all: chemical recycling. We are examining the possibilities, and hope to be able to start using a wrapper made from recycled material very soon.’ 

Lotus Bakeries started promoting its packaging efforts to consumers in 2021 with a ‘recycle me’ logo on each recyclable pack. The company wants to encourage consumers to properly sort the packaging to ensure that recycling efforts are effective. Its communication strategy includes the slogan ‘Let's care for our planet together’. The ‘recycle me’ icon is not an official government or certification agency initiative, but rather an initiative undertaken solely by Lotus Bakeries.