Global food & beverage company Danone is planning to to ensure that all its packaging is designed to be 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Image: Danone factory in Bieruń, Poland. Photo: courtesy of incuś.
Danone said it will accelerate transition towards circular economy of packaging in three ways which include packaging designed for circularity; reused, recycled and composted in practice; preservation of natural resources.
The company committed to develop alternative delivery models or new reuse models where appropriate, and take action to remove problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging.
At present, 86% of Danone’s packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable, and reusable jugs are used to sell 50% of the company’s water volumes.
The company’s bottles are already 100% recyclable at evian brand, where an innovation has been piloted to eliminate non-recyclable shrink film for multipacks using specially designed adhesive and tape handles.
Danone is planning to introduce alternatives to plastic packaging or single-use packaging in all its major water markets by 2025.
Alternatives are also being evaluated to plastic straws for which the company’s AQUA brand in Indonesia is set to launch a pilot program in 2019.
In order to boost its recycling efforts, Danone said it will help to meet, or go beyond, the collection targets set by regulators.
The company currently utilizes 14% of recycled PET on average in its water and other beverage bottles. Danone is planning to increase the number to 50% by 2025.
Danone chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber said the company believes the time is now to step up and accelerate, embrace its responsibility and work with others to engage a radical shift that will help free the world from packaging waste.
Faber said: “We will be acting both at global and local level to ensure circularity of packaging becomes the new norm.
“Today, we are announcing a series of investments and commitments that – I believe – will have a concrete impact. These will be amplified as we collaborate with industry-peers, governments, NGOs, start-ups and the finance sector; harness new technologies and invest in new solutions.”
Danone has also committed to develop the use of renewable, bio-based materials. The company is taking part in a joint project with Nestle, PepsiCo and Origin Materials to bring the first 75% bio-based bottle to commercial scale by 2021, with plans to launch 100% bio-based bottles by 2025.