“An ecosystem of solutions”: Nestlé and Veolia partner to reduce plastic waste

21 Mar 2019 --- Resource management company Veolia and Nestlé have announced a partnership that aims to collect, sort and recycle plastic material, with extra emphasis on flexible plastic packaging. The collaboration will also explore technologies to establish viable recycling models such as pyrolysis, which can produce virgin plastic material. Nestlé aims to use these new technologies to increase the recyclable content of its bottled water packaging up to 35 percent and its overall product packaging up to 15 percent by 2025. The projects will focus on eleven priority countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

“Plastic waste is a challenge that requires an ecosystem of solutions all working simultaneously. This partnership is another specific step to accelerate our efforts in addressing the critical issue of plastic waste. Leveraging on Veolia’s technology and expertise, we will start with pilot projects in multiple countries, with the intention of scaling these up globally,” says Magdi Batato, Executive Vice President, Head of Operations at Nestlé. 

“Our expertise in resource recovery and recycling has positioned us to tackle this issue with global brands and other value-chain actors, across all continents. We believe it is time to move towards more recycling of materials and we want to help our clients be ever more inventive so they can keep improving quality of life, whilst protecting our planet and its resources,” says Laurent Auguste, Senior Executive Vice-President for Development, Innovation and Markets, Veolia.

The Veolia partnership is one in a series of initiatives, as Nestlé seeks to tackle plastic waste with increased efficiency and keep in line with its commitment to make 100 percent of its packaging materials recyclable or reusable by 2025. 

Nestlé has identified several plastic material types that it will avoid using in new product packaging and immediately begin phasing out from existing packaging. The FMCG giant has determined that effective recycling schemes are unlikely to be established for Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polyvinyliden Chloride (PVDC), Polystyrene (PS), expanded Polystyrene (ePS), Regenerated Cellulose and non-recyclable plastics/paper combinations and, as such, these materials will be discontinued for packaging purposes.

“While we are committed to pursuing recycling options where feasible, we know that 100 percent recyclability is not enough to successfully tackle the plastics waste crisis. We are determined to look at every option to solve this complex challenge and embrace multiple solutions that can have an impact now,” says Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider.

“We believe in the value of recyclable and compostable paper-based materials and biodegradable polymers, in particular where recycling infrastructure does not exist,” he adds.

In the same spirit, last January, Nestlé announced a new collaboration with Danimer Scientific which aims to produce a marine biodegradable water bottle prototype in two to three years, as Caroline Biétry, Corporate Spokesperson for Nestlé, tells PackagingInsights. 

The prototype would then need to be tested and assessed under local conditions, in both developing as well as developed markets, she notes. Additionally, since February 2019, Nestlé began to eliminate all plastic straws from its products, using alternative materials like paper as well as innovative designs to reduce littering.

In December 2018, Nestlé announced the creation of its Institute of Packaging Sciences to evaluate and develop various sustainable packaging materials and to collaborate with industrial partners to develop new packaging materials and solutions.