…..Nestlé Nigeria to make more packaging recyclable, reusable by 2025
Following the launch of the New Nestlé Pure Life Bottles with 50% rPET, the Managing Director/CEO, Nestlé Nigeria, Mr. Wassim Elhusseini has revealed that the company will make more of their packaging recyclable and reusable by 2025.
Elhusseini disclosed this during the official presentation of the new Nestlé Pure Life bottles now including 50% recycled PET (rPET), on Wednesday in Abuja.
Represented by Victoria Uwadeka, the Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability Lead, Elhusseini noted that the introduction of the new Nestlé Pure Life Bottles is inline with with their vision to ensure that none of their packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfills, oceans, lakes and rivers.
He said,”I am delighted to welcome you to this special event to announce the attainment of fifty percent rPET in our Nestlé Pure Life Bottles, thereby reducing the use of virgin plastics in our packaging by 50%. This is a significant milestone for us at Nestlé, in line with our vision to ensure that none of our packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfills, oceans, lakes and rivers and to make more of our packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
UPDATE: Nestlé’s Pure Life Bottles now include 50% recycled PET
“Since 2018, Nestlé Nigeria has been working with other stakeholders and partners to recover as much plastic as we put out in the market, based on a “one tonne in, one tonne out” principle to achieve 100% plastics neutrality by 2025. We have also been at the forefront of efforts to develop well-functioning collection, sorting and recycling systems for PET in Nigeria, in order to achieve circularity.
“Collaborating with other stakeholders within the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, FBRA, we have successfully increased collection while building an ecosystem for recycling. In 2021, we started on the next step towards full circularity by teaming up with ALEF.
“Today, we are very proud to be the first to achieve this milestone of 50% rPET inclusion in our water bottles in Nigeria in line with the current national standard, thanks to the resilience of our team working with ALEF to produce food grade rPET in Nigeria. I also recognise and commend the regulatory agencies – NESREA, SON and NAFDAC who have ensured compliance to the highest standards.
“As world leaders join forces to deliberate on climate change and the actions needed to curtail global warming at COP 28, we remain conscious of our position as the leading food and beverage company in the world and we will continue to lead the transformation, putting our size and expertise to work towards sustaining our commitment and creating a waste free future.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Industry, Trades and Investment, represented by Mr Onuoha Francis said the ministry is excited over the milestone achieved by the NESTLE Nigeria.
He emphasized the need for cycling as an alternative solution to addressing the challenges of plastic waste, as well as the issue of climate change in Nigeria.
Nestlé’s Pure Life Bottles now include 50% recycled PEt
“At the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and investment, we are excited. And our excitement is based on the fact that we have the Nigerian industrial policy that support manufacturing in Nigeria. The Nigerian industrial policy recognizes the need for manufacturing to be carried out in line with the sustainable development process.
“Yes, as stakeholders we all know what the topic has been around plastics in recent time. Many have said that plastics pollute the world, hence the need to do away with plastics, however the industrial policy emphasizes recycling as an alternative.
“In addressing the issue of plastic waste, we should not throw away the baby and the bath water, it is important to address issues of sustainable development, to address the challenges of plastic waste in the environment without hurting the economy,”he said.
Mr. Wissam Ramlawi, Managing Director of ALEF Recycling Company, said the unveiling of the new Nestlé Pure Life bottles now including 50% recycled PET (rPET) is a significant milestone.
According to Ramlawi the collaboration between ALEF and NESTLE Nigeria which has resulted in this important achievement is a testament to the power of collective actions, and collaborative spirit in the pursuit of sustainable future.
He said the achievement is not only about the reduction in plastic waste but also a paradigm shift towards moving the country to a circular economy.
“For us today marks a significant turning point in our sheer journey toward a greener planet. As a representative of ALEF recycling, I stand along Nestle Nigeria in celebrating this milestone, the launch of the new bottle containing 50% recycling.
“For me personally and for us as a company, this is a testament to the power of collective actions, and collaborative spirit in the pursuit of sustainable future.
“NESTLE Nigeria took the bold move, as the first company to approach us truly with an open heart and saying we want to move to 50% rPET. We commend them for that. This signifies not just reduction and plastic waste. For me, it is a paradigm shift because it was a willing partner that want to move to a circular economy.
“Let’s this begins a continuous cycle of reuse and reuse, so, this idea of use and throw out, we want to take it out of the packaging system. And this is where NESTLE and ALEF are trying to work in that space is a fusion with elegant fashion clean champions and our journey has now been highly intertwined.
“The strength of our partnership has been fundamental to this success. Together we achieved a groundbreaking achievement by producing rPET. Just for everybody’s information, we are the first rPET in the ECOWAS zone,” Ramlawi declared.
Represented at the auspicious occasion were other critical government ministries, and agencies which include the SON, NAFDAC, NESRA, Ministry of Environment, among others.
