Nestlé in society Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015

Nestlé in society:
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G4-EN28
Supporting Brazil’s national solid
waste policy
New research into the recovery
of flexible packaging
In Brazil, almost a third of the waste generated is recyclable, so
the Government enshrined its National Solid Waste Policy in
law to establish greater shared responsibility for action.
Through a model recognised by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) as a benchmark for
developing countries, businesses are expected to develop the
process for collecting their post-consumption packaging for
further recycling.
More than 300 packaging manufacturers, consumer goods
producers, importers and distribution companies, as well as 21
business associations – including the Brazilian Food Industry
Association (ABIA), which represents Nestlé – make up the
Packaging Recycling Business Coalition. The coalition
represents more than 70% of Brazil’s packaging sector and has
been instrumental in establishing an industry agreement.
Starting in 12 Brazilian state capitals and their metropolitan
regions that are responsible for generating more than a third of
the nation’s waste, the aim is to increase the recovery of dry
recyclable waste to 28% by 2019. A second phase will involve
a national roll-out, with a recycling target of 45% by 2031.
Through an annual investment of BRL 1.3 million (CHF
485 000), Nestlé Brazil helps keep post-consumer packaging
out of landfill, create recycling co-operatives and generate
employment. Of the 160 co-operatives covered by CEMPRE
(Business Commitment to Recycling) throughout Brazil, Nestlé
now supports 69 of them across 34 cities in 15 states. Our
programme now covers more than 1900 catadores (waste
pickers) – more than twice the 2014 figure – who segregated
51 000 tonnes of recyclable waste from Brazil’s landfill sites
in 2015.
In September 2015, new research into increasing the recovery
of flexible packaging was published by the Research
Foundation for Health and Environmental Effects (RFHEE). The
study, ‘Materials Recovery for the Future’, was sponsored by a
number of manufacturers, including Nestlé Purina PetCare and
Nestlé USA, and industry organisations such as the
Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR), the
Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) and SPI (the plastics
industry trade association).
The research is the first in a series of initiatives, aimed at
creating a mainstream recovery solution for flexible packaging.
It will help ‘close the loop’ for flexible packaging materials.
Resource Recycling Systems will conduct baseline tests of
the sorting technologies commonly used in material recovery
facilities, such as screens and optical scanners, to determine
their effectiveness for separating films and other flexible
packaging. Results are expected in mid-2016.
The research is the first to use this methodology to
study the movement of films and flexible plastic
packaging at material recovery facilities in the
United States. We believe that data will help us
learn how to recover and divert more valuable
resins from landfill.”
Diane Herndon, Manager, Sustainability,
Nestlé Purina PetCare
Sortable black plastic pots,
Germany
Nestlé Germany has developed a new range of instant noodles,
packed into an existing polypropylene cup adapted from
another instant product range. The colour of the existing cup is
white but the new product range required a black cup. The
issue with conventional, carbon-based black colourants is that
the black plastic is not detectable and sortable via Near
Infrared (NIR), the common detecting technology within fully
automated German, post-consumer packaging sorting centres.
Within the NEATpack process, we tested different black,
soot-free colourants at a sorting plant in Leipzig and one, along
with the white batches, was detectable by NIR technology as
being PP, enabling effective sorting and recycling. The related
EcodEX study has proven that the use of the alternative
colourant has significantly reduced the impact of GHG
emissions and non-renewable energy (see graphic).
The redesigned black cup, launched in March 2015, is an
equally effective barrier to water vapour and even better barrier
to light than the white cup.
Recovery infrastructure around the world
The recovery rate of used packaging in any given location
largely depends on the availability of collection and recovery
infrastructure. Therefore, we continue to collaborate with
brand owners, packaging suppliers, public and private waste
management schemes, operators and co-operatives,
governments and municipalities around the world to establish
comprehensive schemes for the collection and recovery of
post-consumer packaging.
Such schemes usually involve the wide availability of
collection points for used packaging, efficient sorting and a
range of recovery options, including recycling, energy
recovery, composting and anaerobic digestion (AD). Together,
they help maximise the environmental performance of the
packaging life cycle and minimise the quantity of our used
packaging ending up in landfill or as litter.
The lack of infrastructure can be a particular challenge in
some developing countries, where the only collection method
is waste pickers sorting through landfill sites by hand. Together
with other members of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), we
are investigating how to help increase the recycling and
recovery of used packaging in emerging and developing
countries, beginning with a project to retrieve packaging from
municipal solid waste.
Nestlé in society – Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015 189