Sustainable Packaging at Nestlé Canada
At Nestlé, tackling plastic pollution is an urgent priority for us. We are working hard to ensure that none of our product packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill or as litter, including in our oceans, lakes and waterways.
By 2025, globally we aim that more than 95% of our plastic packaging will be designed for recycling systems with the aim of getting to 100% recyclable or reusable packaging in the long term.
We’ve made a number of global commitments to get there, including the elimination of non-recyclable plastics.
However, to tackle the plastic waste crisis we know that our commitments to make our packaging recyclable or reusable alone are not enough.
We are determined to reduce our use of single-use plastics, by introducing reusable packaging, new delivery systems and innovative business models everywhere we operate and sell our products. Building on our commitment, we will reduce the use of virgin plastics by one third by 2025. We are on track to reduce the use of virgin plastic by one third by 2025, having already reduced 14.9% globally as of 2023.
In early 2020, we announced an investment of up to CHF 2 billion, globally, to lead the shift from virgin plastics to food-grade recycled plastics, and to accelerate the development of innovative packaging solutions.
Collaboration and collective action are vital for transforming how packaging is managed at end of life, particularly if we are to advance the circular economy. Recognizing this, we opened the Institute of Packaging Sciences in 2019 to enable us to accelerate our efforts to bring functional, safe and environmentally friendly packaging solutions to the market and to address the global challenge of plastic packaging waste.
In addition to the work of the Institute, we are working with value chain partners, industry associations and the civil society to explore different packaging concepts to shape a waste-free future. Such system-wide change takes time, but we are committed to creating a world without waste. Our company will also continue to play an active role in the development of well-functioning collection, sorting and recycling schemes across the countries where we operate.
Improving consumer information is also vital, and we’re committed to helping improve it by labeling our product packaging with recycling information – to help ensure it is disposed of in the right way.
Plastic packaging plays an important role in safely delivering high-quality food and drinks to consumers, and in reducing food loss and waste. We need to consider alternatives carefully before making changes.
We are determined to look at every option to solve these complex challenges and embrace multiple solutions to reduce our environmental footprint.
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Canada Plastics Pact
Canada Plastics Pact
On January 27, 2021, Nestlé Canada joined the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP), a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative that brings together industry, government and social organizations from across Canada’s plastics value chain. The goal of the CPP is to drive significant system-wide change towards a circular economy by rethinking the way that we design, use and reuse plastics.
As a founding partner of the CPP, Nestlé Canada has agreed to collectively make efforts achieving four ambitious goals :
- Define a list of plastic packaging that is to be designated as problematic or unnecessary and take measures to eliminate them
- Support efforts towards 100% of plastic packaging being designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable
- Undertake actions to ensure that at least 50% of plastic packaging is effectively recycled or composted
- Ensure an average of at least 30% recycled content across all plastic packaging (by weight)
Canada’s Plastics Pact is the latest country to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact network, a globally aligned response to plastic waste and pollution. In line with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s vision of a circular economy for plastic, the CPP facilitates innovation and knowledge sharing, and drives collaborative action and solutions tailored to Canada’s unique needs and challenges.
To learn more about how we’re optimizing our operations, how are brands are making a difference and commitment from our employees, check out the CSV Snapshot 2022/2023.