Leading soft drinks and bottled water companies like Nestlé, Suntory, Danone, and others along with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) have reportedly prepared a detailed roadmap to eliminate plastic packaging waste. According to trusted sources, the plan was launched at the UK’s House of Commons.
The report, named as ‘Towards Sustainable Packaging’, is an action plan that details how the consortium’s vision – of a future where no plastic packaging is sent to landfill or ends up as litter can be effectively achieved.
The plan reportedly explores four key areas which could help achieve the goal. It further emphasizes that a systematic approach is required to collectively redesign current business models and find feasible solutions to eradicate plastic packaging waste by bringing together the government and society.
According to sources familiar with the knowledge of the matter, the key actions outlined in the report include – the companies and government would investigate the ideal material that can be utilized in the future as an alternative for plastics, study customer behavior to encourage recycling as well as for companies to commit that all their plastic packaging is made up of 100% recyclable-reusable materials and the UK government should establish consistent recycling systems across the nation.
For the record, around 72% of the beverages in the UK are packaged in plastic bottles owing to their effectiveness in preventing food wastage, light-weight properties and excellent durability. However, the durability does not let plastic break down in the environment.
The roadmap reportedly also provides a clear timeline for achieving different milestones. Even though the roadmap is designed to address bottled water and soft drink plastic packaging waste in the UK, governments and companies in other nations could study the approach followed by the industry and implement the same, cite sources.
