Mar 31 - Nestle Releases Sustainability Report, Sets Ambitious Recycling Goal

Bottled water giant, Nestlé Waters, just released their 2010 Corporate Citizenship Report, which outlines the company's efforts to reduce the size of its bottles (light-weighting) while increasing the amount of recycled PET it uses. The report states the re-source brand is now made from 50 % rPET, up from 25 %. Their Eco-Shape half-liter bottle uses 60% less plastic than the company's original half-liter bottle.

Nestlé has also commited to actively working toward a "closed-loop process" that continuously uses recycled materials. Nestlé is developing a "next generation" of bottles made from 100% recycled or renewable material that it hopes to have ready by 2020. They have outlined an ambitious goal of pushing the recycling rate for PET bottles in the U.S. to 60 percent by 2018.

The report reads:

The expansion to rPET for bigger brands is contingent on finding ways to make rPET more cost neutral versus virgin. This means higher recycling rates, as well as lower process costs. Nestlé Waters will work to influence both of these outcomes, and add rPET to our business as it becomes economically feasible.

Currently, more than 90% of postconsumer plastic bottles are exported to foreign markets, especially China. CAW supports increasing use of recycled plastic in-state, and is the sponsor of AB 1149 which will help close the loop on plastic beverage container recycling.