Challenge

Every year, more than eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the sea, and more than 90 percent of all seabirds have plastic in their gut. In 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. Plastic in itself becomes a problem when it is carelessly disposed of, represents a threat to animal life and ends up as microplastic in the sea. Microplastics accumulate in the food chain, bringing with them environmental toxins that negatively affect food safety in the food we eat.

Our ambition in this area

Reduce the total consumption and prevent inappropriate disposal of plastic.

How we take action /what action has been taken

As part of the 50/50-5 project, Lerøy has introduced sub-projects throughout the value chain to reduce general plastic consumption and consumption of non-recyclable plastic by 50% within 2024. Each segment is measured in terms of development, and initiatives are shared across the Group. For Farming segment; Purchased feeding tube & ropes are measured, for wildcatch and the VAPS&D segment purchased vacuum film, single use plastic and EPS are measured.

Lerøy take part in a number of measures to  to clear up plastic in the environment read more about this here.

POLICY:  Plastic

How we measure our impact

All companies report their results every quarter via the Cemasys reporting tool. Impact is illustrated both at Group and company level with the PowerBI analysis tool. If the performance trend deviates from the target (0 or negative), the cause must be identified and specific measures implemented, the effect of the measures evaluated and possibly adjusted towards the next quarterly measurement.

Action taken due to result 

Lerøy has taken part in a project together with NORCE to investigate the amount of microplastic in fish fillets and organs in farmed salmon – SalmoDetect.

By reducing a chamber previously used to label products in plastlink, we were able to reduce our plastic consumption by 10,000 kg. Labels are now placed directly on the foil.

By reducing the thickness of vacuum film for certain products, we have been able to substantially reduce our plastic consumption without having an impact on the technical properties of the film.

By collaborating with our customers, we have increased the percentage of filling for our products so that we use less plastic in kg per kg of product.

Lerøy shall have an overview of plastic purchased throughout the entire Group. Lerøy shall also assess waste management and recycling of these types of plastic to determine the level of sustainability across national borders.

We shall limit the use of plastic when other sustainable materials meet the technical requirements. We shall play an active role in the development of alternative packaging materials for consumer packages and distribution packages.

Targets and Results 

For 2022 the group used 8 392 168 kg of plastic within the identified areas, this is an substantial increase from 2021. In the last year, the group has run a project called sustainability in daily operations.

The purpose of the project is to create awareness in the organization in order to obtain correct and verified reporting of sustainability figures with associated reduction measures. We believe that the reason for the increase is better quality reporting in the organisation.

* data from 2019 is deficient or not complete. Base years must therefore be evaluated from the year 2020.