Danone pledges real action on circular economy
Canadian Packaging
Sustainability Bottles Plastic Bottles Danone Evian packaging Plastic sustainabilityAll of Danone's packaging is expected to be 100-percent recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Leading French multinational food products manufacturer Danone has announced a series of new commitments and actions to ensure its packaging will become 100-percent circular as part of the company’s efforts to accelerate the global transition towards a circular economy of packaging.
Announced in late October, the company’s comprehensive action plan is based on three main initiatives that include:
- Improve product design and develop alternative product delivery and reuse models;
- Develop effective, efficient and inclusive systems for increased collection and recycling of used packaging;
- Preserve natural resources by reintegrating recycled materials into the company’s product packaging and developing the use of renewable materials.
“We believe the time is now to step up and accelerate, embrace our responsibility, and work with others to engage a radical shift that will help free the world from packaging waste,” says Danone’s chairman and chief executive officer Emmanuel Faber.
“We will be acting both at global and local level to ensure circularity of packaging becomes the new norm by 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 (nongovernmental organizations), startups and the finance sector to harness new technologies and invest in new solutions.”
According to Faber, Danone plans to ensure that all of its packaging is designed to be 100-percent recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, with special emphasis on eliminating the use of problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging.
While the company claims that 86 per cent of its packaging is already recyclable, reusable or compostable—with its popular evian brand bottled water sold in 100-percent recyclable containers—it plans to phase out the use of shrinkwrap film for beverage multipacks by switching to specially-designed adhesive-and-tape handles.
Moreover, Danone says it plans to introduce alternatives to plastic packaging or single-use packaging in all of its water markets by 2025, while also helping to develop alternative solutions to plastic straws.
Acknowledging the need for more effective packaging collection and recycling infrastructure to make packaging more circular, Danone is also pledging to go beyond the collection targets set by regulators, such as the minim 90-precent collection target to be set for EU (European Union) countries for 2025.
“To achieve this, we will we will support the most effective publicly organized collection and recycling systems, including EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) and deposit-return scheme systems, when relevant,” the company points out in its Danone Packaging Policy action plan, which is posted online at www.danone.com/content/dam/danone-corp/
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