Our sustainable packaging strategy

We are committed to a waste-free future.

We are helping create a future where cleverly designed packaging, innovative new materials, better recycling infrastructure and reusable or refillable packaging mean that no plastic waste ever contaminates the land or oceans. Reaching this goal requires participation from all levels of society. We are proud to be a catalyst for that change, inspiring a future where people and partners everywhere rethink how they engage with packaging.

Our vision is ambitious: A world in which none of Nestlé’s packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill or as litter on land or in seas, oceans and waterways.

How we are working to reduce our environmental impact

100 %

50 %

Our five-pillar packaging strategy

We are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to make simple, yet smart and sustainable packaging. This includes refillable designs, alternative delivery solutions and more recycled content. When considering the ‘after-life’ of our packaging, we are committed to helping to improve the recycling infrastructure where our products are sold, as well as encouraging people to do what they can to limit waste.

Our strategy provides a structure for our entire team, including our many packaging experts, researchers, product developers, our Institute of Packaging Science and our many partners to achieve our overall aims:

Less packaging
Better packaging
Better system

1 Reducing our use of plastic packaging material

We want to use less packaging material, including less virgin plastic. Examples of how we’re doing this include removing unnecessary plastic lids, accessories, layers and films.

In Egypt, we have eliminated plastic bottle cap tear-off bands from Nestlé Pure Life water bottles – which means 240 tonnes less plastic every year. And we are eliminating close to 10 times that amount of plastic by removing Gerber baby food over-cap lids.
2 Scaling reusable and refillable systems

To eliminate the need for disposable packaging, we are working hard to eliminate non-recyclable plastics and investing in innovative, alternative delivery systems.

Many of these solutions are already being used in markets around the world, including a bulk delivery system in Chile for Purina Dog Chow products in Chile, reusable containers for Häagan-Dazs in Canada, for Nesquik cocoa powder, Ricoré chicory and coffee drink and Chocapic Bio cereals in France and dispensers for Nescafé and Milo in many countries around the world.
Read more on sustainable home delivery in Chile
3 Pioneering alternative packaging materials to facilitate recycling

We are collaborating with industrial partners to develop new packaging materials and solutions. For example, we are well on our way to eliminating all plastic straws from our products, using paper as an alternative material. The innovation required Nestlé to develop an entirely new supply chain to meet a key technical challenge: Bendable paper straws that are durable enough for consumers, while meeting rapid dissolvability criteria for paper recycling.

Across our product portfolio, we’re evaluating the materials we use and testing alternatives, like using recyclable paper for packaging our Maggi bouillon cubes in France, instead of packaging that contains aluminum. We have also been able to find paper alternatives to plastic and aluminum for Nesquik.
4 Supporting infrastructure that helps to make recycling easier

Over and above delivering on our 2025 commitments, we have a longer-term ambition to help stop plastic leakage into the environment across our global operations.

We will do this by supporting recycling infrastructure in the countries where our products are sold and by aiming to collect and recycle the same amount of plastic as we use in our products under a 'one tonne in, one tonne out' principle.

In Indonesia, our partnership with Project STOP supports many existing local initiatives and waste pickers in coastal areas, collecting tonnes of waste every day.
5 Driving new behaviors

Addressing the plastic waste challenge requires behavior change from all of us, including Nestlé, consumers, retail partners and suppliers. We are committed to leading lasting and impactful change.

Through programs, campaigns and solutions – like the digital platform to help consumers dispose of their packaging waste appropriately in Italy and the Tunyan Verde school program in Argentina – we aim to educate and encourage people, helping everyone imagine a waste-free future.
Tunyan Verde School Program - Watch here

Reimagining packaging

Nestlé’s Institute of Packaging Science

Our Institute of Packaging Science is the only research institute of its kind in the food industry. Set up in 2019, it already counts around 50 packaging experts dedicated to developing the next generation of sustainable packaging materials. It is helping evolve the way packaging is designed, moving from multi-materials to single materials to help make recycling easier.

Creating a global market for food-grade recycled plastics

Nestlé is investing CHF 2 billion to accelerate the development of more sustainable packaging – and the infrastructure to support a circular lifecycle. Most plastics are difficult to recycle for food packaging, creating a limited supply of food-grade recycled plastics. While this work gathers pace, we are committed to paying up to CHF 1.5 billion in premiums for food-grade recycled plastics up to 2025 to help create a market for these materials.

Uniting behind a shared vision of a circular economy for plastic

In 2019, we joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative. We pledged to work across the industry to create a circular economy for plastic, starting with packaging – eliminating unnecessary plastic in our packaging and innovating to make the plastic that we do need recyclable and reusable.