Nestlé Unveils Five-Point Sustainable Packaging Plan for 2025

Nestlé Maps Out Five-Point Plan to Achieve Sustainable Packaging by 2025

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Nestlé packaging is ramping up with five robust workstreams focused on reducing material use and enhancing circularity across its global portfolio. The company has briefed its extensive packaging strategy, which is underpinned by five interconnected pillars, and redefined its focus to ensure that every packaging item is reusable and recyclable by the end of this year. With Nestlé’s recent disclosure, the company states its long-standing objective of avoiding packaging waste in the oceans and landfills.

Further, acknowledging the regulatory challenges and persistent infrastructure across markets, the company is moving forward with confidence. By explaining science through packaging materials and design innovation, the company has attracted many major brands and packaging manufacturers globally.

Nestlé’s idea is rooted in research from the Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences in Switzerland. This institute has been operating since 2019, with 50 packaging specialists working on proven, science-based packaging material and design development. The institute develops compostable, bio-based, and recyclable materials with high protection, refillable or reusable, and paper systems engineered to alleviate the hazardous environmental impact of packaging.

The latest programs involve testing simple multilayer films to enhance recyclability and upgrading excellent-performing paper structures to a level of potential sufficient to replace traditional plastics. According to the company’s data, Nestlé’s plastic packaging totaled 873 kilotons in 2024, with up to 87% of its overall packaging demonstrating reusability and recyclability.

The company is focusing on reducing virgin plastic use by one-third, performing better than 2018 levels, and achieving more than 95% of its plastic packaging engineered for recycling by the end of this year.

The first two pillars target reduced packaging use and put reusability in the spotlight. The initiative involves promoting reuse and refill pilots and mitigating virgin plastic use across markets, such as stainless-steel Nesquik containers in Germany and a refill point for pet food at a selective retail outlet. The third pillar emphasizes redesigning packaging via industrial collaborations to generate recyclable materials and discard non-recyclable plastics.

The fourth pillar focuses on systemic improvements in recycling. With this, the company partners with the various industry platforms and recycling initiatives to classify potential and strengthen collection. Involving its membership perk in the UK Flexible Plastic Fund and effective collaborations in Latin America and Asia to enhance post-consumer recovery systems. Lastly, the fifth pillar symbolizes ‘rethinking behaviors’ that address the role of retailers and consumers’ suppliers in mitigating waste via joint responsibility and continuous recycling practices.