Mars Thailand wins sustainability award for its plastic waste reduction program

The FMCG Asia Awards 2023 awarded Mars Petcare Thailand with The Eco-Friendly Initiative of the Year Award for its ‘SWAP Recycling’ program, allowing pet parents to swap their empty bags of dry or wet pet food from any brand for a discount on Pedigree, Whiskas, Cesar and Sheba products.

The initiative has received a great response from over 107,000 pet parents and 174 pet shops nationwide this year, which collected more than 7.2 tons of plastic waste.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) upcycled the plastic into urban landscape objects, giving it a second life. This included cat- and paw-shaped paving blocks and bone-shaped benches in dog-friendly zones located in different parks.

Expansion on the horizon

Mr. Piyarath Amornchart, Asia Commercial Director at Mars Petcare Asia Pacific, shared that Mars aims to “transform consumer habits into responsible waste management.”

“It marks one of the initial steps in scaling up the positive impact within Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan,” Amornchart adds.

Ratchakorn Chenpattanapong, General Manager for Mars Petcare Thailand and Indochina, highlights that the program’s success has also given them the insights and understanding to develop similar initiatives in other countries such as the Philippines. 

“There are likely to be more SWAP programs across Asia in the near future,” he adds.

The SWAP Recycling Initiative was launched in 2021 and saw an expansion across Southeast Asia earlier this year.