Sustainability

SunSmart’s operations are currently focused in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Mondelez Philippines Inc. corporate and government affairs lead Caitlin Punzalan, meanwhile, said the firm was targeting to achieve plastic neutrality in line with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act that took effect last year.

This means that “for every piece that we put out in the market through our products, we will make sure that we collect it through our partners and make sure that it is properly disposed of and does not end up in nature,” she added.

Punzalan said that consumers had become more conscious about the environment and sustainability, with 54 percent making an effort to eat more plant-based snacks, 70 percent prioritizing snacks with less packaging and 66 percent actively looking for snacks that work to minimize their environmental impact.

“More people are looking toward not just sustainability in what they buy or how they live but also what they eat,” she added.

Republic Act 11898, or the EPR law, mandates large firms to establish a mechanism for the recovery of their plastic packaging, with targets to be raised annually.

Mondelez, the maker of famous snack brands such as Oreo, Toblerone, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Tang, Eden Cheese and Cheez Whiz, recently partnered with the Plastic Credit Exchange in a bid to achieve a 100-percent recovery rate.