\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-2147901050-e1720685938391.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
When Nestle SA tweaked its plastic packaging goals in 2022, few noticed. The shift in language on the website of the world\u2019s largest food maker pledged to mostly use plastic \u201cdesigned for\u201d recycling by 2025 rather than only use \u201crecyclable\u201d or reusable packaging by next year \u2014 its original commitment.<\/p>\n
The subtle rewording, highlighted publicly here for the first time, might seem like semantics. But the difference amounts to 280,000 metric tons\u00a0of additional non-recyclable plastic waste a year, according to the latest available data for 2022. Piled up, it would weigh the same as 30 Eiffel towers or 1,400 Statues of Liberty.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a fresh indication that the efforts to curb the use of virgin plastics \u2014 including a key pledge made by dozens of\u00a0companies since 2018 to make all such packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable \u2014 are failing. The rolling back of some commitments coincides with companies facing pressure from two years of rising raw material costs and investor calls to focus on profitability over saving the planet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf some of the world\u2019s largest multinational companies with near limitless resources at their disposal are failing to deliver on their commitments and pledges, something is clearly very wrong with the system,\u201d said Christina Dixon, ocean campaign leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency, a non-governmental organization, referring to the voluntary commitments by companies to reduce the use of plastics.<\/p>\n
Nestle, the maker of Nespresso pods and Maggi Stock cubes, said it changed the wording because it was important to report on what it could control. \u201cAs communicated publicly in 2022, we remain committed to achieving\u00a0100% reusable\u00a0or recyclable packaging in the long term but given infrastructure barriers this was no longer realistically achievable by 2025,\u201d a Nestle spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
But according to\u00a0its own data the company had fallen back. In 2022, the last year available, 51% of its packaging was recyclable, reusable or compostable, down from 55% in 2018, the base year restated for a fair comparison. The company expects this to rise to 63% for 2023 as some materials get recycled more widely. Using the adjusted goal and with the tweaked language, however, things look much better: in 2023, 83.5% of its plastic packaging was\u00a0designed for<\/em>\u00a0recycling.\u00a0<\/p>\n About\u00a0400 million tons of plastic waste<\/a>\u00a0are produced globally every year \u2014 so another 30 Eiffel Towers might seem like a drop in the ocean.\u00a0But the United Nations has warned that if historic growth trends continue, that figure will\u00a0almost treble to 1.1 billion tons in 2050<\/a>. Much of that will end up in seas and rivers, causing massive harm to animal and human health.\u00a0But with less than 10% of plastic recycled globally,\u00a0according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development<\/a>\u00a0and companies like Nestle failing to reach their goals,\u00a0promises that once looked bold now look unachievable.<\/p>\n Some producers blame\u00a0insufficient recycling infrastructure, inadequate regulation and lethargic consumers for delays in recycling. And call on governments to do more to boost investment and create financial incentives to develop demand for more types of plastics markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that is only part of the story.\u00a0Critics says companies need to buck their addiction to packaging\u00a0that doesn\u2019t have viable recycling solutions \u2014 things like multilayered plastic sachets used for food or household consumer products.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA very big share of packaging put on the market today is not designed recyclable,\u201d\u00a0said Sander Defruyt, who works on initiatives to create\u00a0a circular economy for plastic at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. \u201cIndustry will need to continue making big investments in innovation and production line changes to move away from these, towards reusable or recyclable solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n The Foundation,\u00a0a non-profit organization\u00a0founded by the yachtswoman,\u00a0has standardized the reporting of environmental pledges for big companies.<\/p>\n Technically difficult, collecting recyclable plastic is also expensive and bound by complex regulations.<\/p>\n Nestle isn\u2019t the only company fudging its way through an ever growing sea of plastic pollution. Unilever Plc publicly\u00a0rolled back<\/a>\u00a0its ambitious plastics reduction targets in April, while Mondelez International Inc. and Ferrero Group\u00a0quietly tweaked their targets\u00a0in published reports to set a \u201cdesigned for\u201d goal. Unilever said it had made tangible progress in reducing plastic waste but has much more work to do. A Ferrero spokesperson said recyclability at scale depends on the infrastructure and processes available at local level. Mondelez said the change was driven by factors such as the integration of acquisitions and the time needed to complete trials across its supply chains.<\/p>\n Other plastics reduction pledges are also proving a challenge. Even though Nestle says it\u2019s on track to meet a goal of reducing its use of virgin plastics by a third compared with\u00a02018, that figure was only 15% last year, meaning progress must dramatically accelerate to meet ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the rampant\u00a0food price inflation, this was not an easy path to pursue,\u201d Mark Schneider, Nestle\u2019s chief executive officer, told journalists in April of its efforts to reach environmental targets over the last two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet companies like Nestle and Unilever are considered sector leaders in terms of their plastics reduction efforts. They\u00a0report annual progress on their commitments to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. So if they are failing to reach their goals, that bodes poorly for the rest.<\/p>\n They want the UN Plastics Treaty \u2014 a legally binding global agreement expected this year \u2014 to reduce plastics production and set the same standard for companies globally. But reaching consensus is tricky and the last and penultimate round of talks\u00a0took production caps off the table<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe global plastic industry has created the illusion of recyclability,\u201d Planet Tracker, an environmental NGO said in a statement. \u201cWhen in reality a shocking 91% of plastic is not recycled globally.\u201d<\/p>\n In a large industrial building just south of the River Thames in London\u00a0stands a nest of red and black horizontal and diagonal conveyor belts and mechanical sorters \u2014 reminiscent of the famous painting \u201cRelativity\u201d by M.C. Escher. It processes the recycling of around two million people or 120,000 tons a year. It\u2019s one of about 100 material recovery facilities across the UK, of varying sizes.<\/p>\n Workers in protective clothing remove items that may be dangerous such as batteries which can cause fires \u2014 as happens on a weekly basis \u2014 or anything that could clog up the machines. Mechanical sifters sort items by size. While optical machines separate different materials like metal and paper.<\/p>\n In an adjoining warehouse stand the fruits of the process: large bales of recycled cardboard, metal or mixed plastic, ready for collection. The plastic is sold to reprocessors, who separate it out into varieties, shred and melt it down into pellets for resale.<\/p>\n Veolia, the French owner of the plant, has upgraded its technology to deal with more materials in recent years. But the biggest brake on the development of the sector\u00a0is that less than 50% of household packaging gets recycled in the UK \u2014\u00a0similar to most of Europe \u2014\u00a0a ratio that has stubbornly held for several years.<\/p>\n The company says there is no end market for some plastics \u2014\u00a0carrier or salad bags and clingfilm \u2014 and so there are no facilities to recycle them. \u201cIf we invest in a facility,\u201d says Tim Duret, Veolia\u2019s director of sustainable technology, \u201cand the demand for that material is not consistent, it makes us very nervous to spend \u00a340 million ($51 million) on a facility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Polyethylene terephthalate bottles \u2014\u00a0the sort used to hold Nestle\u2019s Buxton mineral water \u2014 are cheap to recycle and versatile: they can be used to make new bottles, athleisure or sleeping bag filling for example. Even so, the recycling rate is only about 30% and the business is low margin. \u201cOn top of that you have volatility. We are losing money at the moment,\u201d said Duret of the south London plant.<\/p>\n A key factor undermining the Veolia business plan is the cheaper cost and availability of virgin imported plastics, which is undercutting the recycled\u00a0market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Recycled PET cost as much as \u20ac1,500 ($1,600) a ton\u00a0in May, \u20ac200 higher than virgin PET according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data. The prices driven partly by the EU\u2019s 2025 directive requiring PET bottles to contain at least 25% recycled content.\u00a0<\/p>\n At least 2.2 million tons of plastic packaging end up in the UK market every year, but only a fifth of the materials are from recycled sources. The\u00a0UK Plastic Packaging Tax<\/a>, introduced in 2022, charges\u00a0producers \u00a3218 per ton\u00a0for products made with less than 30% recycled content.<\/p>\n Such measures should help drive demand. But Veolia wants the tax to\u00a0rise to 50% and \u00a3500 per ton\u00a0by 2030. There are other initiatives to force the mandatory use of recycled content.\u00a0Plastics pricing is also an opaque business governed partly by regulatory requirements, there is no central database and there is huge variation in types.\u00a0<\/p>\n The supply of virgin plastics is only likely to rise. Petrochemicals companies increasingly view plastics as a way to make up for future anticipated falls in transport fossil fuel production. The International Energy Agency estimates that plastic will become the largest driver of oil demand, accounting for almost 50% of its growth by 2050.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more sustainable option needs to be the default,\u201d says Sokhna Gueye head of packaging, UK and Ireland at Nestle. \u201cAnd for that to be the default, it has to be cheaper as well. So recycled plastic longer term has to be cheaper than virgin plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n The continued use of plastics for which there are currently only limited recycling solutions make it impossible for some consumer groups \u2014 among the biggest users of the material in the world \u2014\u00a0to meet their commitments.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2022, more than 17% of Nestle\u2019s plastic packaging was made up\u00a0of things like multilayered sachets and pouches\u00a0\u2014 typically containing a combination of plastics, aluminum and paper \u2014 which aren\u2019t being recycled at scale anywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nestle and other consumer groups use the format to help develop their presence in emerging markets by selling everything from Nescafe to non-perishable shampoos in smaller, almost tester, packaging.<\/p>\n But without access to waste collection infrastructure they are often dumped in rivers and on beaches after use. Even if they did have such facilities such packaging is\u00a0not recyclable at scale because it\u2019s too difficult to separate out the different layers. With 19% of its plastic waste coming from mixed material packaging smaller than A4, Unilever like Nestle, will struggle to be 100% recyclable without stopping these formats.<\/p>\n Unilever said it was working on alternatives such as reusable and refillable packaging systems, and different materials, as well as collecting and recycling.<\/p>\nThe Volatile Business of Recycling\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Plastic-Eating Enzymes<\/h2>\n