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Nestlé will reach recycled plastics goal by 2021 and expand use of recycled materials in future

Kristy Nudds   

Sustainability Business Operations Beverages Nestle sustainability


Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) announced today that it will achieve 25 per cent recycled plastic across its U.S. domestic portfolio by 2021. The company plans to continue expanding its use of recycled materials in the coming years, further setting an ambition to reach 50 per cent recycled plastic by 2025.

The company’s U.S. packaging portfolio is already 100 per cent recyclable, but it wants to expand its use of recycled materials. The company is expanding its relationship with key supplier, Plastrec (Joliette, Canada), and working with other suppliers, to support the company’s ability to nearly quadruple its use of food-grade recycled plastic, or rPET, in less than three years.

“We want to take the “single” out of “single-use” bottles. Our bottles were never meant to be thrown in the garbage — we carefully design them to be collected, recycled, and repurposed,” said Fernando Mercé, president and CEO of Nestlé Waters North America.

“PET plastic is a valuable resource that, if recycled properly, can be used to create new bottles again and again,” he said. “We’re proving that it can be done by making bottles out of other bottles, not ten years from now, but today.”

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The announcement follows Nestlé Waters North America’s recent announcement that it will expand its partnership with CarbonLITE to scale-up supplies of rPET.

It also reflects Nestlé’s broader ambition to make 100 per cent of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.

In its 2016 report, The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation found that most plastic packaging is used only once, and that 95 per cent of the value of plastic packaging material, worth $80-120 billion annually, is lost to the economy. This latest milestone positions Nestlé Waters to play a greater role in addressing the nation’s growing recycling challenges, while unlocking the full economic and environmental benefits of treating plastic as a valuable resource, rather than as a waste product.

 Making bottles from other bottles 

Earlier this year, as a result of Nestlé Waters’ existing relationship with rPET supplier Plastrec, the company unveiled a new 100 per cent rPET Nestlé Pure Life® bottle, the only major nationally distributed bottled water on the market to be made using 100 per cent recycled plastic.

In California, Nestlé Waters is leading the industry in its use of recycled plastic: more than 42% of the plastic the company uses across all brands sold in California is made from rPET– more than any other beverage manufacturer in the state. In fact, all single-serve bottles of Arrowhead® Brand Mountain Spring Water and Nestlé Pure Life Purified Water produced in California are made with 50 per cent recycled plastic.

Global commitment to develop a circular economy for plastics

This latest milestone is part of parent company Nestlé SA’s broader ambition to develop a circular economy for plastics, and to prevent packaging from ending up as litter. The global company recently announced that it has signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment  to work collectively on solutions that address the root causes of plastics waste and pollution. Nestlé Waters North America’s packaging, which is predominantly made using PET plastic, is already 100 per cent recyclable, and the company views its push toward using more recycled materials to be its next phase in making its packaging more sustainable and addressing the issue of plastic waste.

For more information about Nestlé Waters North America’s sustainability efforts, visit https://www.Nestlé-watersna.com/en/planet

 


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