The Kroger Co. has announced its recycling program has hit a major milestone, recycling more than 1 million pieces of Our Brands flexible plastic product packaging. The company shared it is offering customers more items with upcycled ingredients with the addition of two new Simple Truth products to advance sustainability.
"We are continually looking for creative and innovative solutions to support our vision of creating zero-waste communities," said Juan De Paoli, vice president of Our Brands for Kroger, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. "Our customers sharing in that commitment by recycling packaging and purchasing products made with upcycled ingredients, alongside our efforts to advance sustainability, makes important progress toward eliminating waste and creating healthy, thriving communities."
The recycling program provides customers with free, prepaid shipping labels to mail in flexible plastic Our Brands packaging for recycling. The list of eligible products can be viewed at Kroger.com. The recycled materials are used to construct playgrounds donated by Kroger to youth and community organizations.
The retailer also is working toward its Zero Hunger | Zero Waste mission by expanding its product selection containing upcycled ingredients with the addition of Seeded Multigrain Bread and Multigrain Quinoa Bread to the Simple Truth sustainable lineup, both upcycled certified by the Upcycled Food Association (UFA). The designed from scratch bread is blended with upcycled barley, wheat and rye grains, with each variety topped with ingredients like sunflower, flax, black sesame, pumpkin seeds and quinoa.
Offering more than 1,500 unique items, Simple Truth offers customers products that are free from unwanted ingredients, including more than 101 artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and sweeteners. Other Simple Truth upcycled-certified products include a plant-based dark chocolate brownie mix, a plant-based chocolate chip cookie mix, a plant-based sugar cookie mix and the new Simple Truth gluten-free banana bread mix made with upcycled okara flour.
The UFA, joined by Kroger in 2022, is a trade association working to prevent food waste by accelerating the upcycled food economy. UFA is a network of more than 225 businesses from around the world collaborating to empower consumers to prevent food waste with the products they purchase.
