Europe’s supermarket shelves packed with ‘misleading’ claims about recycled plastic packaging

Manufacturers are promoting so-called sustainable plastics that contain only a tiny amount of waste material. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Europe’s supermarket shelves are packed with brands billing their plastic packaging as sustainable, but often only a fraction of the materials are truly recovered from waste, with the rest made from petroleum.

Brands using plastic packaging – from Kraft’s Heinz Beanz to Mondelēz’s Philadelphia – use materials made by the plastic manufacturing arm of the oil company Saudi Aramco.