Master Kong collaborates with Alibaba and Veolia on sustainable plastic recycling initiative

Master Kong, China’s leading instant noodles and beverage manufacturer, has partnered with Alibaba Group and French utility Veolia in a pilot project aimed at reducing its carbon footprint. The project, focused on recycling Master Kong’s waste plastic bottles, will transform these into new products to be sold on an Alibaba Group’s grocery platform. 

Master Kong, which also exclusively produces, distributes, and sells PepsiCo soft drinks in China, collected waste PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, a 100% recyclable plastic, and transported them to a processing plant. Here, Veolia transformed these bottles into PET pellets, which can be repurposed into new products. Closing the recycling loop, these pellets were then used to create goods sold on Tmall Supermarket, an Alibaba-owned grocery platform.

In its latest annual report, Master Kong revealed that it had converted the PET pellets into storage boxes and luggage cases with its partners. During the project, which ran from August 2022 to May 2023, twenty thousand recycled PET storage boxes were sold. 

This initiative is part of a broader commitment by Alibaba and Master Kong to combat the global plastic pollution crisis, aligning with the increasing rate of plastic dumping in oceans as reported by the United Nations.

Master Kong: Alibaba’s technology in sustainability efforts

Master Kong utilized Alibaba Cloud’s Energy Expert, a carbon management platform, to document the recycling initiative’s carbon emission savings. This platform determined that seven waste plastic bottles could create one PET storage box, reducing the carbon footprint of each box by 21% compared to using virgin PET material. 

Leveraging blockchain technology, Energy Expert ensured transparency and data security throughout the process, documenting key production and shipping information.

Consumers were also engaged in this sustainability effort, with each recycled PET storage box featuring a QR code that allowed them to access detailed carbon emission data for the entire production chain. This interactive element provided consumers with insights into the environmental impact of their purchases.

The pilot project is among several sustainability initiatives pursued by Master Kong. Notably, the group has also released the first standard for carbon footprint accounting and carbon neutralization evaluation for tea beverages in China.