Food giant Nestlé has announced that 83.5% of its plastic packaging was designed with recycling in mind as of the end of 2023.
Nestlé is aiming to ensure that none of its packaging ends up in landfill or as litter and has been implementing various measures at a global level to facilitate the recycling of its packaging materials and support better waste management.
"We are making progress in reducing our overall packaging, making it more recyclable, and using renewable or recycled materials in our packaging," said Antonia Wanner, Nestlé's head of ESG strategy and deployment.
"The design of, and material used in, our packaging are factors we can directly impact. But we also go beyond that and help build up waste management infrastructure, support harmonised regulation, and engage on the human rights of waste workers," Wanner added.
Other Highlights
At the end of 2023, 41.5% of Nestlé's total packaging was made from recycled or renewable content.
The company added that it is using 50% recycled polyethylene (rPE) in shrink films across its European factories.
It is also aiming to continuously increase the amount of food-grade recycled polypropylene (rPP) and rPE in many of its brands' packaging, including Nesquik, KitKat and Purina.
Nestlé said that it is working with local and national governments, industry alliances, civil society and consumers to develop and improve recycling infrastructure in the countries where it operates.
It supports a UN Treaty on plastic pollution and the mandatory extended producer responsibility and deposit return systems regulation.
In the UK and Ireland, the company has transitioned its Quality Street sweets and Smarties to recyclable paper packaging.
Global Initiatives
Nestlé has partnered on 220 initiatives to develop waste collection, sorting and recycling schemes in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Latin America.
In the UK, the company announced a £7-million investment into a new recycling facility to process flexible plastics. It is set to open in Durham later this year.
Along with Nespresso, JDE Peet's and FostPlus, Nestlé is part of the Blue Bag for recycling initiative in Belgium, which collects all beverage capsules and pods, whether aluminium or plastic.
In Brazil, the company has partnered with the Recicleiros Cidades project to provide job training, promote consumer recycling education and implement waste collection infrastructure in 11 Brazilian states.
Currently, waste collection partnership projects supported by Nestlé in Brazil empower more than 8,000 recycling professionals.
