Nestlé and Veolia, the world’s leading resource management company, announced their collaboration to work on waste collection, sorting and recycling of plastic material, with a particular emphasis on flexible plastic packaging. Projects will focus on eleven priority countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. According to Veolia, various technologies will be explored to find viable recycling models in the various countries: for example chemical recycling, like pyrolysis, produces plastic similar in quality to virgin plastic. These technologies will help Nestlé grow the proportion of recycled content in its packaging. The goal is to reach 35% recycled content in plastic bottles and 15% in all packaging produced by 2025.
Magdi Batato, Executive Vice President Operations at Nestle has said "Plastic waste is a challenge that requires an ecosystem of solutions all working simultaneously. This partnership is another specific step to accelerate our efforts in addressing the critical issue of plastic waste. Leveraging on Veolia’s technology and expertise, we will start with pilot projects in multiple countries, with the intention of scaling these up globally".
Laurent Auguste, Senior Executive Vice President Development, Innovations and Markets Veolia has said "Our partnership with Nestlé will contribute to a more circular plastic economy. Our expertise in resource recovery and recycling has positioned us to tackle this issue with global brands and other value-chain actors, across all continents. It is urgent to move towards more recycling and we are proud to help our customers innovate to improve our quality of life and at the same protect our planet and its resources" .
