São Paulo, August 2022 – As the official delivery of Rock in Rio Brasil 2022, iFood and Suzano, the event's official Sustainability partner, are investing in actions that go beyond promoting experiences and entertainment. In partnership, the companies will provide more than 230,000 sustainable packaging, made from recyclable 100% paper, with raw material from renewable, biodegradable and plastic-free sources. The packaging will be used in one of the festival's food areas, Gourmet Square, and to ensure circularity, all waste collected will be sent for recycling and reused as raw material for making other materials.
Named Packaging of the Future, the container is the result of a partnership between iFood and Suzano, whose priorities were to offer the market other packaging alternatives, which were both sustainable and viable for use in large-scale delivery.
“Our focus is on finding sustainable solutions that replace plastic in delivery and this packaging is the materialization of this and Rock in Rio is the ideal stage to stimulate, with different audiences, the importance of circularity, reducing the use of plastic and increasingly conscious consumption. Furthermore, we developed solutions in the iFood app to reduce the use of plastic in orders and invested in recycling projects to achieve our commitment to eliminate plastic pollution in our operations in 2025,” comments André Borges, head of sustainability at iFood.
The initiative is part of a set of actions by iFood Regenera, iFood's environmental goals program, which works to eliminate plastic pollution in delivery operations and neutralize carbon emissions by 2025. According to iFood, the measure is a point of departure for implementation of packaging in delivery. “In addition to the more than 230 thousand sustainable packaging that will go to Rock in Rio, we are allocating another 61 thousand units for some restaurants to start implementing in their production chain. The intention is for the project to gain support from partner restaurants to expand the use of sustainable packaging in delivery.” says Borges.
With this, the action at Rock in Rio also reinforces one of Suzano's commitments to offer, by 2030, 10 million tons of products of renewable origin, developed from eucalyptus biomass, to replace plastics and other petroleum derivatives.
“Our purpose is to 'Renew life from the tree', offering positive solutions not only for society but also for the environment, and we have strengthened our objective through partners who follow in the same direction. Suzano is at Rock in Rio to provoke end consumers to reflect on the importance of their choices and reinforce each person's role in building a sustainable future”, says Fabio Almeida, executive director of Suzano's Paper and Packaging Unit.
To encourage the correct disposal of paper packaging, Suzano will bring six collection machines to Cidade do Rock with touch screens indicating step-by-step instructions on how to dispose of them. All paper packaging used at the festival will be identified by a barcode and, to win exclusive gifts, the public must correctly dispose of a Future Packaging or a paper cup from Suzano, both made with BlueCup Bio ® – product from the company's paperboard line made from renewable sources - along with other paper waste in the machines.
At the end of the event, all packaging collected will be sent to the correct treatment to begin the recycling process. As a result, the packaging used at Rock in Rio returns as raw material for the production process and is used to manufacture new products that return to the hands of consumers.
Packaging of the Future
The union of large Brazilian companies began a year ago, when both launched the Challenge “Packaging of the Future”, which encouraged the development of packaging projects for home food deliveries produced using the exclusive use of Bluecup Bio® paper.
The product, which is national 100%, is coated with water-based and plastic-free biodegradable resin. The raw material is virgin fibers from renewable eucalyptus forests, which have low lateral absorption without transferring odor or taste to food.