Nestlé has announced that its Buxton Natural Mineral Water range will be packaged in bottles made from 100% recycled plastic (rPET), while remaining 100% recyclable, by 2021.
The 75cl and 1 litre bottles made from 100% rPET were launched in November this year and the rest of the range, currently made with a minimum of 20% recycled plastic, will follow by end 2021.
“The high-quality recycled material retains the same all-important properties as PET, resulting in a product that is lightweight, durable, resilient and still 100% recyclable,” said Michel Beneventi, business executive officer for Nestlé Waters UK. “We would have liked to have made all our Buxton bottles from recycled material much sooner but there are many challenges to achieving this. The material we use needs to be high-quality food grade.
“The availability of a domestic UK supply of this material is still relatively limited. Today, the rPET used for our Buxton bottles has to be sourced outside of the UK, as we don’t currently have the infrastructure available at scale in this country to create volumes needed. We would love to be able to produce the bottles for our British water in the UK.”
Last year, Nestlé announced its ambition to make all of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
To achieve this goal, the company has identified three core objectives: the elimination of non-recyclable plastics, encouraging the use of plastics that allow better recycling rates and changing or eliminating unsustainable packaging material combinations.
Anna Turrell, head of sustainability for Nestlé UK and Ireland, said: “It is great that Buxton is taking this vital step. As a packaged goods company, we have a hugely important role to play in helping to address the amount of plastic produced in our industry and a collective responsibility to help shape a more sustainable future. We will continue to push the boundaries to address this challenge.”
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024
