Britvic has announced that it has joined up with UK retailers, manufacturers, recyclers and NGOs to sign the UK Plastics Pact, which aims to cut plastic waste.
The UK Plastics Pact was launched by sustainability experts WRAP in order to tackle the growing issue of plastic waste.
The Pact brings together businesses from across the entire plastics value chain with the UK government and NGOs. Britvic is one of 42 businesses involved.
Members of the Pact have committed to hit a series of targets by 2025:
Eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic packaging through redesign, innovation or alternative (re-use) delivery models.
100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.
70% of plastic packaging effectively recycled or composted.
30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging.
Essential Changes
Matt Barwell, Chief Marketing Officer at Britvic, said, “This is an extremely important issue and we take our responsibility to help protect the environment incredibly seriously. By signing up to this Pact, we are committing to work collaboratively with our industry peers, government and the waste management sector to make meaningful and essential changes now.
Barwell noted that all of the PET plastic bottles used by Britvic in the UK are fully recyclable, and carry the on-pack-recycling-label to encourage our consumers to recycle. He added that over 308 tonnes of primary plastic bottle packaging was removed from its supply chain by moving products into new bottling lines and accessing lighter weight bottles.
He added, “Looking to the future of packaging, we are currently trialling the use of recycled plastic (rPET) in our bottles to help us achieve our aim of significantly increasing the amount of rPET we use. At the same time, we continue to invest in R&D to investigate the use of alternative sustainable materials to package our products.”
Marcus Grover, the CEO of WRAP, said, “We are delighted to have Britvic on board as a founding member of The UK Plastics Pact.
“Through our first-of-a-kind Pact we will work together with governments, citizens and business to transform the way we make, use and dispose of plastic so that we retain its value, particularly in reducing food and drink waste, but prevent it from polluting the environment.”
Other companies including the likes of Aldi, Lidl, Arla, Birds Eye, Coca-Cola, Nestle and Tesco have all signed up for the Pact as well as a host of other companies across the EU.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
