On America Recycles Day 2018, Nestlé joined the Environmental Protection Agency and other private and public entities in signing a pledge to work together to address recycling challenges in the U.S. The signatories gathered at the America Recycles Day Recycling Summit at the EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC on November 15.
The signatories pledge to work together to build on existing efforts to address the challenges facing the nation’s recycling system and identify solutions that create a more resilient materials economy and protect the environment. This group will collaboratively work across four action areas: education & outreach, enhancing material management infrastructure, strengthening secondary materials markets, and enhancing measurement.
Nestlé’s ambition is to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, with a focus on three core areas: eliminate non-recyclable plastics; encourage the use of plastics that allow better recycling rates; and eliminate or change complex combinations of packaging materials.
Improving recycling rates begins with education and outreach. Nestlé USA, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Gerber, and Nestlé Waters North America are all using How2Recycle labels to offer tips on how to recycle their products.
Nestlé is also investing in research to enhance recycling infrastructure in the U.S. Since 2015, Nestlé has been working with a consortium of manufacturers and industry organizations to sponsor Materials Recovery for the Future, a first-of-its-kind research study evaluating how flexible plastics are handled at recycling facilities. Early findings have shown that automated sorting technologies in use today can be optimized to capture flexible plastic packaging, potentially creating a new stream of recovered materials to create next-life products while improving the quality of other recycling streams.
Strengthening secondary materials markets is critical to Nestlé’s goals to increase recycled content in its packaging. Nestlé Waters North America announced today that it has signed a significant agreement with recycled PET plastic (rPET) supplier CarbonLITE, and that CarbonLITE will expand its U.S. operations by building a third facility in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. CarbonLITE anticipates the facility will be in full production by early 2020, and will have the ability to recycle over 2 billion post-consumer bottles and save an estimated 60,000 tons of carbon annually.
Nestlé is honored to join the Environmental Protection Agency and others in open dialogue about ways to address recycling challenges in the U.S.
Nestlé in the U.S.
Nestlé in the United States is committed to being a trusted leader in nutrition, health and wellness. Our 48,000 employees in the United States are committed to enhancing quality of life, contributing to a healthier future for individuals and families, our communities, and the planet. Nestlé in the U.S. offers a wide and varied portfolio of food and beverage products for people and their pets throughout their lives. Nestlé in the U.S. consists of eight main businesses: Nestlé USA, Nestlé Waters North America, Nestlé Nutrition, Nestlé Professional, Nespresso, Nestlé Health Science, Nestlé Skin Health and Nestlé Purina PetCare Company. The United States is Nestlé S.A.’s largest market with combined product sales in the United States totaling more than $27 billion in 2017.
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