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

Many brands in European supermarkets are misleadingly labeling plastic packaging as sustainable, despite it being largely derived from petroleum. Companies like Kraft Heinz and Mondelēz are using plastic from Saudi Aramco's petrochemical subsidiary, Sabic, which promotes "circular" plastic despite its reliance on fossil fuels. This practice, often involving pyrolysis, a carbon-intensive chemical recycling process, allows companies to claim high recycling rates through controversial accounting methods like "mass-balance bookkeeping," where a small amount of recycled material is attributed to a larger batch. Independent experts and NGOs criticize this as greenwashing, yet the EU and UK are poised to legalize these practices in 2026 and 2027, respectively. The industry's tactics allow them to present appealing figures of high recycling rates and low emissions for brands eager to attract customers.

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