Nestlé announces 2025 packaging goals

Nestlé, which is headquartered in Switzerland, has announced its goal to make 100 percent of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, with the company saying none of its packaging, including plastics, should end up in a landfill or as litter. Nestlé adds that the need to minimize the impact of packaging on the environment is urgent.

Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider says, “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, reuse and recycle. Our ambition is to achieve 100 percent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025.”

The company is focused on three core areas: eliminate nonrecyclable plastics, encourage the use of plastics that allow better recycling rates and eliminate or change complex combinations of packaging materials.

Recognizing the need to develop a circular economy, Nestlé says it is committed to:

• playing an active role in developing well-functioning collection, sorting and recycling schemes across the countries where the company operates; 
• 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 its plastic product packaging with recycling information to help consumers dispose of it in the right way; and
• promoting a market for recycled plastics by continuing to increase the proportion of recycled plastics in its packaging.

Preventing packaging material from ending up as waste, including in oceans and waterways, is one of the key reasons behind Nestlé's pledge, the company says.