Date : 20th Jan 2023
3 Companies excelling their plastic waste reduction initiatives in the FMCG Sector
As the population increases, so does the use of plastics in everyday life and pollution. With the increase of plastic empties in MNCs, and in landfills, the concern to create a better environment for the future is at stake. Studies say that out of seven billion tonnes of plastic waste that has been generated, only 10 percent has been recycled. In the FMCG sector, the amount of plastic waste generated is higher. Out of them, some of the companies have started working on reducing plastic waste through initiatives. Let's look at 3 such companies.
Nestle
As the world's largest food and beverage company, Nestle's vision is to design 95? of their plastic packaging that can be recycled by 2025. By already achieving an 8.1% reduction in plastic waste by 2021, they are working on reducing the use of virgin plastics by ? by the year 2025. They are ambitious to use less but better packaging and build a strong system that supports the collection and material recovery. Nestle has started to imbibe the usage of plastic alternative options like making straw-less designs. They have also stopped the usage of plastic lids, films, lids, and accessories that are not needed. Like they removed plastic tear-offs from the tops of water bottles from Nestle pure life in Egypt, saving and removing 240 metric tonnes of PVC. Nestle has also moved away from peak virgin plastic packaging, with plastic usage under one million metric tonnes, reducing 35% weight since 2019 in 2021.
Dabur
Dabur has become India's first plastic-neutral company, collecting, processing, and recycling as much plastic as they sell. In 2022, they collected 2700 metric tonnes of plastic waste post-consumption from all over India. Those plastics include multi-layered plastics, and plastics like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene HDPE bottles, beverage cartons, and polypropylene (PP) caps. The plastic waste collected is sent to cement kilns, different recyclers, and waste to energy plants. Launching the initiative in 2018 as part of PWM rules in 2016, Dabur has collected more than 54,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste. They have collected it directly from end users through their initiative. Their operations executive director said that the company has also prevented waste from reaching landfills and oceans. The latest achievement of the company has been collecting 22,000 metric tonnes of plastic leaving three months of the timeline and they have increased the target to 26,965 metric tonnes.
Procter & Gamble
The company reached 85% on their zero manufacturing waste to landfill initiative and they had planned to make it to 100%. The company started this shift in various ways like turning scraps from feminine care products into litter for cats. They also turned old drums into school benches and tree containers. They have also made plans to recover plastic waste from diaper production in Mexico. They have plans to turn it into plastic pellets for brooms and buckets. The Belleville Plant in Canada converts scrap and process waste from feminine care products to products of spill mitigation. The Zero Manufacturing Waste to Landfill program has helped the company to save more than two billion while diverting more than five million waste away from landfills. The region of Asia and Europe have nearly reached the goal of 100? of the program. A report provided by the company says that this has double benefits by
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creating a supply chain more circular in nature avoiding landfills.
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getting revenue for what would have been a waste otherwise.
With the companies in the FMCG sector taking visible and notable steps to cut down and reduce plastic packaging, the onus is on other sectors as well as the common people to stop and recycle plastics.