FrieslandCampina, one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the world and the owner of Rainbow Brand in the Middle East, has committed to collecting two million Rainbow tins (weighed at 100 tonnes) in 2023. 

 

This is happening at a time when over 500 million aluminium beverage cans are sold in the UAE but 93% of these cans end up in landfills. Landfills in the UAE, particularly in Dubai, are overwhelmed by massive amounts of waste from materials including alumnium, plastic, and metal, among others. Outside of the many initiatives and strategies the emirate is undertaking, including increasing the cost of disposing of waste in landfills, there is a concerted effort being taken to ensure zero waste by 2030.

 

The FrieslandCampina initiative is in line with the UAE’s vision for waste management, marked by Dubai’s goal to achieve zero waste by 2030. The programme is an extension of a pilot programme undertaken in partnership with utilities giant Veolia in May 2022 to help collect and recycle Rainbow cans from UAE’s tea shops.

 

Strong core

With a strong core in dairy and nutrition and with brands such as Rainbow, Frico, and Coast, FrieslandCampina has taken concerted efforts to strengthen its corporate social responsibility towards creating a greener future.

 

The drive engaged UAE’s teashops through a pilot project led by Recapp, which saw the dairy cooperative collect six tonnes of Rainbow milk tins and with a view to scale up these numbers in the following year.

 

In 2022, FrieslandCampina collected six tonnes of tins and a total of 110,000 tins. For 2023, the dairy cooperative has plans to collect 100 tonnes of tins and a total of 2,000,000 tins.

 

The initiative showcases FrieslandCampina’s efforts to sustain business growth while decoupling its environmental footprint from its growth and increasing positive social impact. To accelerate this vision and achieve such an impact, FrieslandCampina has rolled out a ‘Green Champions’ sustainability schools’ program in collaboration with Emirates Environmental Group, which encourages UAE residents and members of society to understand the benefits of recycling.

 

Recyclable

Ali Ahmed Khan, Vice President, Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, FrieslandCampina, said: “The majority of packaging materials are recyclable, however, only a small portion of that is being recycled. For us at FrieslandCampina, sustainability is beyond a business imperative or a tick-box exercise. The time is always ripe for sustainability and UAE is the perfect place to harbour our ambition and drive for sustainability. Our sustainability goals are supported by the UAE’s leadership from reducing carbon emissions to using sustainable ingredients, and ensuring our packaging is 100% reusable or recyclable by 2025. 

 

“We're committed to minimising our environmental impact. Locally, we are taking efforts to inform consumers about the need to recycle. Recycling is the need of the hour and is crucial to benefit the environment, economy, and societies we live and operate in.”-- TradeArabia News Service