Every year 300 million tons of plastic waste are produced globally. That is nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population. According to the UN Environment Programme, about 60 percent of all the plastic ever produced has ended up in either a landfill or the environment. Therefore, it is not surprising that the issue of plastic waste and pollution has captured the attention of the public, governments and businesses all around the world – including HelloFresh. To fight this global issue, we’ve partnered with Plastic Bank®, an organization committed to preventing plastic waste from entering the oceans. Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocesses plastic for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain.

Plastic Bank cooperates with local communities

Fighting plastic pollution while supporting vulnerable communities

As the world’s largest meal kit company, HelloFresh has a responsibility to make a positive impact on environmental and social issues. That’s why, together with Plastic Bank, we have set up three plastic collection centers in Indonesia where members of the local community will receive a premium in exchange for delivering recovered plastic waste to the collection centers. This enables the collectors to provide basic necessities like food, cooking fuel, health care costs and education for their families. The recovered plastic is then recycled and integrated back into the plastic value chain as Social Plastic®. In this way, HelloFresh will support over 560 families in need while making a tangible contribution to preventing plastic pollution.  

Plastic Bank’s proprietary blockchain platform secures the entire transaction. The provided real-time data visualization ensures transparency, traceability, and rapid scalability. Qualities that are essential for socially responsible and planet-friendly projects that we support.

“I’m delighted that we are stepping up our ambitions to tackle plastic pollution. Our Green Chef brand has already been partnering with Plastic Bank since 2019 to offset all plastic waste that’s used in their meal kits. We are now expanding this trusted partnership by fighting plastic pollution together”, says Tilman Eichstaedt, Global Vice President for Supply, Product and Sustainability at HelloFresh. “With this partnership we commit to preventing 750,000 kilograms of plastic, an equivalent of 37.5 million plastic bottles, from entering the oceans until the end of 2023 while supporting vulnerable communities.”

Our cooperation with Plastic Bank has a positive impact on the environment and on the community.

Reducing plastic in our meal kits

As the world’s leading meal kit company, we have a responsibility to join the fight against pressing global issues such as plastic pollution. That is why we are firmly committed to reducing plastics in food packaging wherever possible. At the same time, some plastic packaging will continue to stay necessary in order to deliver ingredients to our customers while ensuring transport protection, food safety, quality and preventing food waste. In these cases we will work on implementing certified recyclable materials for all essential packaging in each of our markets. As a company our goal is to move towards a circular use of packaging in which all plastic finds its way back into the recycling stream. This is part of our ongoing commitment to innovative eco-friendly food packaging. Keeping our own plastic consumption as low and as sustainable as possible is not enough. The partnership with Plastic Bank represents another important step on HelloFresh's sustainability journey.

The HelloFresh sponsored project allows collectors to provide basic necessities like food, cooking fuel, health care and education for their families.