Hoogstraten, Belgium, 15 March 2022 – deSter, leading supplier of innovative food packaging and serviceware concepts for aviation and food service industries, signed the “Green Deal Anders Verpakt” agreement introduced by the Flemish Government in Belgium. This was co-signed by Hilde Crevits, Viceminister-president of the Flemish government and minister of Economy, Innovation, Work, Social economy and Agriculture, and Zuhal Demir, Flemish minister of Justice and Enforcement, Environment, Energy and Tourism.
This voluntary agreement is focused on minimizing single-use packaging by avoiding or reusing it, while also reducing the environmental impact of a packaged product. It unites various parties from the Flemish government, knowledge institutions, retail, packaging producers, design agencies and others who have an influence on the marketing & use of packaging.
For deSter, a gategroup member, sustainability is at the heart of everything they do. The company has been working for the past years to create packaging which fits into Circular Economy model and has a minimal impact on the environment. As part of this, deSter is significantly reducing its single-use plastic range, replacing it with reusable products or if reuse is not possible, replacing them with plactic free with organically compostable products made from renewable sources.
deSter committed to specific goals to be reached by 2025
- Make 100% of its packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable.
- Reduce its worldwide single use plastics range from 25% to more than 70%. This even goes up to 90% for single use cutlery.
- Introduce and expand reusable and closed loop recycling model for products and packaging.
- Launch a reusable model for at least 5 projects.
- Invest in collaborations for collection and separation of recyclable packaging and organic material in order to increase the recyclability and degree of compostability in practice.
- Reporting publicly and annually on the progress of these targets.
To support the goals, deSter have signed the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. deSter is on the journey to a more sustainable future and is proud to become a part of the change in Belgium, where deSter HQ is situated.
About Green Deal Anders Verpakt
The “Green Deal” aims to ensure that customers of the participating parties have an opportunity to receive products/contents in a different way than in single-use packaging, whereby the environmental impact of the packaged product decreases and the total amount of single-use packaging that are put on the market every year is falling.
SMART objectives have been formulated in the context of this Green Deal:
- Within the Green Deal, all participating parties submit concrete pilot projects in which single-use packaging is avoided through prevention or reuse.
- Within the Green Deal, at least half of the participating parties that carry out a concrete project make the commitment to continue and/or scale up their pilot project.
- Within the Green Deal, at least 10% of the pilot projects in scaling up after the Green Deal have the potential to reduce (per scaling up) the annual amount of one-way packaging by at least 15,000 tons or 300 million units.
The participating parties will be inspired, stimulated and coached by the initiators and supporting parties to start up and implement innovative and ambitious projects.
Learn more (in Dutch only): https://omgeving.vlaanderen.be/green-deal-anders-verpakt