Luxembourg's Ardagh to participate in UN FAO's Save Food initiative to reduce world's food waste, says its recyclable, naturally-sourced glass, metal packaging plays vital role in food preservation

Lorena Madrigal

LUXEMBOURG , January 18, 2012 (press release) – As one of the world’s leading packaging companies, Ardagh Group welcomes the opportunity to participate in the SAVE FOOD programme. The SAVE FOOD initiative is a collaboration between the Food & Agricultural organisation of the UN and the Exhibition Centre Duseldorf against worldwide loss of food. Ardagh fully supports the campaign’s objectives to achieve more sustainable methods for minimising food waste.

Ardagh’s Commitment to Sustainability is summarised by the following statement: ‘Sustainable packaging from sustainable materials by a sustainable company’.

Ardagh’s focus starts with a strong belief in the value of responsible packaging. Packaging protects and preserves valuable food resources. It can help to address the problem that whilst 1 billion people in the world are going hungry, we generate enough food waste to feed 3 billion people, and around 40 per cent of the food on the planet is lost between field and plate.

We are proud that our packaging (glass and metal) is made from naturally occurring materials which are permanent resources and infinitely recyclable. We have been actively supporting our customers to create more environmentally friendly packaging design. For instance over the past 20 years we have invested in the technology and design expertise to reduce the weight of our glass and metal containers by over 30 per cent.

Throughout our 88 plants we are proactively improving our environmental performance in areas such as emissions reduction, increasing recycling rates, minimising water use, material waste and transport.

Ardagh’s most recent ‘Freshthinking’ innovation conference, which took place in October 2011 - the same month that saw the birth of world’s 7 billionth people, focused on a theme of “Sustainability”. Leading industry experts and scientists addressed the wider issues around sustainability and an underlying message was the need to protect the world’s finite resources particular food, with a growing number of mouths to feed.

Ardagh recognises that Packaging has a vital role to play in food preservation and protection and our glass and metal packaging both offer excellent protection properties together with long shelf life (without the need for refrigeration).

We commend the SAVE FOOD team for their vision of raising awareness on this fundamental issue throughout the whole supply chain and offer our full support.

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