Recyclable Materials – Nestlé Waters

Rethinking materials and packaging design

Like every consumer good, our products have an environmental impact. In recent years, we have assessed our packaging and identified design and material changes that have reduced our footprint.

As we look to the future, we anticipate that certain natural resources will be less abundant and more closed-loop processes will be needed. We believe that there will also be the need to explore and incorporate more alternative packaging materials, including recycled plastics and/or bio-plastics made from renewable materials, into our products.

To prepare for these changes, we must understand the full life-cycle impacts of our products and packaging – from sourcing of raw materials to manufacturing and packaging through distribution and end of use. Assessments of these impacts have and will continue to help us identify opportunities to reduce our use of materials, eliminate waste, and repurpose recycled materials that are in their second life.

Assessing our footprint and using less material

Target 9:

Complete a comprehensive assessment of our materials and packaging footprint by 2011, and use findings to make future waste reductions and promote second-life use

New life for recycled bottles

Target 10:

Develop “next generation” bottles made from 100% recycled or renewable material by 2020

In 2009, we collaborated with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), Whole Foods Market^® and Waste Management to create a bottled water brand that would raise consumer awareness about the importance of recycling and showcase how recycled materials get turned into new products.

The result is re-source^® Natural Spring Water, which was launched in a bottle made from 25% postconsumer recycled plastic (rPET). In 2010, we increased the amount of rPET in re-source bottles to 50%.

In Canada, Nestlé Waters reintroduced Montclair Natural Spring Water in 2010 with 100% rPET. Read more about the progress we've made against our 2008 goal to incorporate rPET into our products.

The expansion to rPET for bigger brands is contingent on finding ways to make rPET more cost neutral vs. virgin. This means higher recycling rates, as well as lower process costs. Nestlé Waters will work to influence both of these outcomes, and add rPET to our business as it becomes economically feasible.

To this end, we will support research to help us understand the best uses of recaptured plastic material and engage stakeholders around determining the best second-life uses of our plastic bottles. These findings will help to inform future strategies.

We will continue monitoring and reviewing the environmental impact of bioplastics, and seek opportunities to support and promote the use of promising technologies.

Case Study – re-source

As of 2009, around 30% of U.S. households didn’t have curbside recycling and less than 30% of all PET beverage bottles were recycled in the U.S.

Through our newest bottled water brand, re-source, we are taking steps to reverse these alarming statistics. re-source was the first national bottled spring water brand to use 25% recycled plastic in all of its bottles, and was developed to actively help educate and engage consumers through on-pack information and recycling incentives. Each recycled re-source bottle can be used to produce items such as new plastic beverage bottles, fleece, reusable shopping bags, carpet, and other products.

Through a partnership with GreenOps, a subsidiary of Waste Management, recycling machines that track recycling progress were placed in Whole Foods stores across the country. For every plastic beverage bottle that was recycled in a GreenOps Tracking Station from April 2009 through April 2010, we donated 5 cents to Keep America Beautiful to fund local recycling programs in communities across the country. Between September 2009 and October 2010, there were 48 machines in use, which collected 168,000 pounds of plastic. We donated $50,000 to Keep America Beautiful.

* Source: National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) "2008 Report on Postconsumer PET Container Recycling Activity," October 2009. (http://www.napcor.com/pdf/2008_Report.pdf)