Multinational giant Nestlé has announced its ambition to make 100 per cent of its packaging recyclable or re-usable by 2025.
The global company said in a statement its vision is that none of its packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill or as litter. Nestlé believes that there is an urgent need to minimize the impact of packaging on the environment.
“Plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, re-use and recycle. Our ambition is to achieve 100 per cent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025,” Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said.
The company said it focuses on three core areas: eliminate non-recyclable plastics; encourage the use of plastics that allow better recycling rates and eliminate or change complex combinations of packaging materials.
Recognizing the need for developing a circular economy, Nestlé is committed to:
- Playing an active role in the development of well-functioning collection, sorting and recycling schemes across the countries where we operate;
- Working with value chain partners and industry associations to explore different packaging solutions to reduce plastic usage, facilitate recycling and develop new approaches to eliminate plastic waste;
- Labeling our plastic product packaging with recycling information to help consumers dispose of it in the right way;
- Promoting a market for recycled plastics by continuing to increase the proportion of recycled plastics in our packaging
Nestlé said it pledges to preventing packaging material ending up as waste, including in seas, oceans and waterways.
Greenpeace has commented today on Nestlé statement. The NGO said it does not include clear targets to reduce and eventually phase out single-use plastics. Instead, it announced “ambition” for its packaging to be 100 per cent recyclable or reusable by 2025, plans for “continuing to increase the proportion of recycled plastics in packaging” without a clear timeline, and additional efforts to help facilitate recycling by consumers.
“Nestlé’s statement on plastic packaging includes more of the same greenwashing baby steps to tackle a crisis it helped to create. It will not actually move the needle toward the reduction of single-use plastics in a meaningful way, and sets an incredibly low standard as the largest food and beverage company in the world. The statement is full of ambiguous or nonexistent targets, relies on ‘ambitions’ to do better, and puts the responsibility on consumers rather than the company to clean up its own plastic pollution,” said Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Graham Forbes.
“Identified as one of the worst plastic polluters in cleanups and brand audits around the world, Nestle is accountable to do more to address the problem. It is in the position and has the power and resources to phase out single-use plastics towards zero-waste in its packaging.
“A company of Nestlé’s size should be setting a strong standard to actually move away from throwaway plastics. It should know by now that recycling efforts are not going to clean up our oceans, waterways, and communities. On the contrary, the company’s business as usual will only accelerate plastic pollution.”
