Nestlé Australia has developed recycled plastic wrappers for KitKat in collaboration with other companies.
The food giant has developed a prototype made of recycled waste plastic in association with CurbCycle, iQ Renew, Licella, Viva Energy Australia, LyondellBasell, REDcycle, Taghleef Industries and Amcor.
This innovation is driven by Nestlé's pledge to reduce its use of virgin plastics by one-third by 2025.
The Soft Plastics Challenge
Sandra Martinez, CEO of Nestlé Australia, said that the project had been driven by a shared determination to resolve the soft plastics challenge – and an enormous amount of goodwill.
Martinez added, "Between us, we have shown that there's a pathway to solve the soft plastics problem. To build this at scale, across all states and territories, across hundreds of councils, is going to take a huge effort from the government at all levels, from industry, and consumers, but I think it can be done."
Last year, Nestlé launched a trial project in Australia to effectively collect, sort, and process soft plastics for recycling.
This initiative is a follow-up to this trial and aligns with Nestlé's vision to shape a waste-free future, the company added.
Missing Link
Food-grade recycled soft plastic packaging is a crucial missing link in Australia's bid to improve waste management and build a circular economy, the company said.
The lack of both collection and processing infrastructure makes it challenging to keep waste out of the landfill and meet demands for packaging with recycled content.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.