Our packaging strategy

We are committed to helping to shape a waste-free future.

Our vision is that none of our packaging ends up in landfill or as litter. We are helping create a future where cleverly designed packaging, innovative new materials, better recycling infrastructure and reusable or refillable packaging can prevent waste on land and in oceans. This goal is ambitious, but we are determined to achieve it.

Our Global action

Participation from all levels of society is needed. As a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, we are committed to playing an active role in the development of well-functioning collection, sorting and recycling schemes across the countries where we operate. The global infrastructure gap is significant, and we are working to model successful collection and resource recovery systems with partners around the world. We actively advocate for harmonised and better regulation of post-consumer resources and call on governments to accelerate progress on infrastructure development. We advocate for a legally binding UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, which we hope will lead to new, harmonised regulations.

Supporting local packaging systems

In Australia we are actively supporting the design of recycling schemes and systems in Australia by collaborating with local governments, industry partners and environmental organisations.

Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia
As a founding partner of Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia (SPSA), Nestlé is working alongside industry and government to capture and recycle soft plastics across Australia.

The scheme aims to make it easier for Australians to recycle soft plastics at home, taking hard-to-recycle soft plastics out of the waste stream and recycling it into new products including food-grade packaging material.

Our five-pillar packaging strategy

Our packaging strategy is science based, and benefits from the industry leading work of the Nestlé Institute of Packaging Science, which is the only research institute of its kind in the food industry. Set up in 2019, it has around 50 packaging experts dedicated to developing the next generation of sustainable packaging materials.

The Institute is helping to evolve the way packaging is designed. It is developing refillable or reusable packaging systems, designing simplified or recycled packaging materials and developing high-performance barrier papers and bio-based, compostable and biodegradable materials.