MEXICO CITY — By the end of this year, Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV hopes to have 100% of its packaging recyclable, biodegradable or compostable. The goal, outlined in the company’s 2024 annual report, is part of its Zero Packaging Waste initiative.

As of 2024, 94% of the company’s packaging was recyclable, Grupo Bimbo said.

"We are committed to ensuring that our product packaging is recyclable and has an increasingly lower environmental impact, while maintaining the quality and safety of the food that reaches our consumers,” Grupo Bimbo said. “We focus our efforts on increasing the use of recyclable materials in our packaging.

“From the design stage, we seek to create packaging that has a lower environmental impact and contains less plastic, without compromising product quality. For it, we foster the research and development of new packaging materials through open innovation models in collaboration with research centers, universities, and suppliers specialized in technology. We are constantly working to find innovative solutions, developing new technologies that allow us to reduce the use of virgin plastic through state-of-the-art recycled materials and/or bio-based materials, thereby promoting a circular economy.”

One key initiative in 2024 was the successful completion of the migration of trays used to protect cakes and sweet bread to recyclable materials. The initiative took place in Mexico and involved switching from polystyrene to PET and including 30% recycled material, the company said.

Material reduction also plays an instrumental role in Grupo Bimbo’s Zero Packaging Waste initiative. The company said it has reduced the use of plastics in its packaging, with significant progress in the United States and Mexico. In the United States, Grupo Bimbo removed the inner wrappers from Arnold, Brownberry and Oroweat bread products in 2024. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Grupo Bimbo achieved a 17% reduction in the weight of the inner packaging of Gansitos multi-packs and a 23% reduction in the weight of Barcel Tortilla Nachos’ packaging.

Grupo Bimbo also said it has implemented improvements in the design and production of packaging with recycled content, optimizing its performance and reducing the use of virgin plastic. During 2024 the company said it incorporated approximately 1,500 tons of recycled plastic into its products’ packaging and avoided using 2,100 tons of virgin plastic by incorporating recycled materials into its packaging.

In the United States, Grupo Bimbo uses 30% recycled material in its bread bags. The company said it is moving forward with projects to use resins that guarantee a lower environmental impact from packaging.

As part of its program with TerraCycle, Bimbo Bakeries USA has recycled a total of 10.42 tons of packaging since 2020. In 2024, BBU’s recycling program collected and recycled 373,736 bags and packaging items, according to the report.