Nestlé Philippines is the first multinational consumer goods company to achieve plastic neutrality, where recovering plastic waste is equivalent to what it puts out in the market.,It fully supports the consolidated legislation on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic waste and hopes it will be signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte.,“We congratulate the authors and sponsors of this EPR legislation which we have consistently advocated,” Nestlé PH chair and CEO Kais Marzouki said.,“Its enactment into law will be a major step in building a waste-free future and a circular economy. Our vision is that none of our packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfills, oceans, lakes, or rivers, or as litter,” he continued.,The legislation defines EPR as the environmental policy approach and practice that requires producers, covering large enterprises, to be environmentally responsible throughout the life cycle of a product, especially its post-consumer or end-of-life stage.,The product refers to plastic packaging utilized to carry, protect, or pack goods for transportation, distribution, and sale.,These include sachets, labels, laminates, and other flexible plastic packaging products, rigid plastic packaging products, plastic bags for carrying or transporting goods and provided or utilized at the point of sale, and polystyrene.,“In our current economy, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste – the process is linear. In a circular economy, by contrast, we stop waste being produced in the first place,” Ellen MacArthur Foundation said.,“The circular economy is based on three principles driven by design – eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. It is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and materials.”,Furthermore, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explains that a circular economy decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It is a resilient system that is good for business, people, and the environment.,With plastic waste as one of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, tackling it is a top priority for Nestlé which globally aims to make its packaging 100 percent recyclable or reusable by 2025.,The company is implementing a holistic approach to plastic waste, accelerating initiatives across three focus areas:
(1) developing the packaging for the future, through packaging and delivery innovation and plastic reduction;
(2) helping to shape a waste-free future through increased collection and recycling; and
(3) driving new behaviors and understanding through solid waste management (SWM) education.,Apart from its plastic neutrality milestone, collecting 48 million kilograms of plastic waste from August 2020 to May 2022, Nestlé PH has transitioned to paper straws for its locally manufactured ready-to-drink products, the country’s first food and beverage manufacturer to do so.,Among its initiatives to raise consumer awareness and behavior toward plastic waste, the company developed the country’s first SWM education modules to be rolled out in 20,000 public schools nationwide.,The modules, as part of the Nestlé Wellness Campus program, are reaching millions of Grades 1 to 10 students. Separate SWM modules have been created and are being shared with parents, teens, and local government units.,“Even as we pursue economic, social, and environmental sustainability, Nestlé has embarked on a journey of regeneration: to help protect, renew, and restore the environment, improve the livelihoods of farmers, and enhance the resilience and well-being of communities and consumers. Putting into practice EPR on plastic waste will be a landmark development for sustainability and regeneration,” said Marzouki.