Arla turns baby formula cans into wildlife meals in its recycling push

Arla Foods, the world's largest organic dairy producer, has completed a two-month recycling campaign in China that turned empty baby formula tins into exchanges for meals for wild animals as part of the Danish cooperative's effort to link premium dairy with sustainability.

Under its Arla Baby&Me brand, the company collected about 90,000 used cans across 14 provinces, engaging 2,000 retailers and nearly 28,000 families. Each can funded one wildlife feeding, amounting to more than 300,000 meals, Arla said.

The initiative was organized with help from the Luoyang Wild Animal & Plant Protection Association and Zhuhai Safari Park. In addition to feeding wildlife, it also financed artificial nests for birds that are unable to nest on their own, and provided winter shelter and food for over 1,000 birds, and veterinary equipment and medicines expected to support five years of rescue work.

More than 12 tons of metal were recycled from the returned tins, cutting demand for steel, while some cans were repurposed into limited-edition magnets for participants.