Nestlé joins alli­ance for respons­ible plant-based plastics

Along with Nestlé, the Bioplastics Feed­stock Alli­ance (BFA) will include key fast-mov­ing con­sumer goods firms The Coca-Cola Com­pany, Dan­one, Ford, H.J. Heinz Com­pany, Nike, P&G and Uni­lever. As con­sumers across the world seek sus­tain­able altern­at­ives to pet­ro­leum-based products, the alli­ance will aim to guide the respons­ible selec­tion and har­vest­ing of agri­cul­tur­al mater­i­als — such as sug­ar cane, corn, bul­rush, and switch­grass — used to make bioplastics.

Real altern­at­ives

​“Join­ing the alli­ance means we will be able to help build a more sus­tain­able future for the bioplastics industry whilst address­ing issues such as land use, food secur­ity and biod­iversity,” said Nestlé’s Glob­al Research and Devel­op­ment Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Man­ager, Anne Roul­in. BFA intends to bring togeth­er lead­ing experts from industry, aca­demia and civil soci­ety to devel­op and sup­port informed sci­ence, col­lab­or­a­tion, edu­ca­tion, and innov­a­tion to help guide the eval­u­ation and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of mater­i­als that can be made into bioplastics.

‘Crit­ic­al for conservation’

​“Ensur­ing that our crops are used respons­ibly to cre­ate bioplastics is a crit­ic­al con­ser­va­tion goal, espe­cially as the glob­al pop­u­la­tion is expec­ted to grow rap­idly through 2050,” said Erin Simon, of WWF. Already, bioplastics made from sug­ar cane and oth­er plant-based mater­i­als are used in Nestlé’s product port­fo­lio. Since early 2012, for example, sev­er­al sizes of VIT­TEL bottled water have been pack­aged in an innov­at­ive PET bottle made from 30% plant-based mater­i­al. Nestlé is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in second gen­er­a­tion bioplastics, made, for example, from the by-products of forestry, agri­cul­ture or the food chain – such as molasses or cane residue – or non-food sources such as algae, cel­lu­lose and waste products. Source: Nestlé S. A.