The majority of U.S. consumers wants to buy products with minimal plastic in their packaging, according to rePurpose Global. Nestlé just made that a lot easier.
According to industry website Process and Control Today, the consumer goods giant is innovating the packaging for several of its major brands. By 2025, it hopes to have made 95% of its plastic packaging recyclable as well as reduced the use of virgin plastics by one-third.
In an exciting milestone, the company has launched paperboard canisters for its popular Vital Proteins supplement brand in the United States. The new canisters reduce the plastic used in the brand's packaging by 90%, per PCT, without sacrificing quality and storage function.
"When developing paper packaging, we consider each product's sensitivity to external elements such as oxygen, temperature and moisture," Gerhard Niederreiter, head of the Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences, told the outlet. "Starting with less sensitive products, Nestlé's paper packaging journey started in confectionery including Smarties and KitKat and is now advancing to product categories such as coffee which require higher barrier protection."
The company has already rolled out several other packaging initiatives in the United Kingdom, including a refill pack in a paper package for Nescafé, PCT reports. This means that consumers will be able to replenish their glass Nescafé jars and recycle the refill packaging via local streams.
The solutions are urgently needed. Plastic production is a huge generator of polluting, planet-warming emissions, and the amount of plastic waste that ends up in the environment is staggering. It's estimated that over 11 million tons of plastic garbage enter the ocean each year, per the nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy.
Not only does this accumulation of waste endanger the ecosystems where it ends up — trapping and snaring animals and disrupting food chains — but as the plastics break down, they also make their way into…well, just about everything. Microplastics have been found in places from coral reefs to tea bags and even inside the human brain.
Fortunately, companies such as Nestlé are working quickly to innovate around the issue at multiple points in the production process. From inventing high-tech "trash drones" that gather and remove garbage from the ocean to incentivizing recycling with creative approaches including Coca-Cola's "reverse vending machines," they hope we can work together to turn the tide of plastic waste.
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