Biffa will be supporting Nestlé Waters UK to achieve its commitment of making every Buxton bottle from 100% recycled plastic by collecting recyclable British PET bottles and reprocessing them into rPET.
Nestlé hopes that the partnership will enable it to significantly reduce the amount of virgin plastic in circulation and lead the shift to the use of high-quality food-grade rPET that has been recycled in the UK, rather than sourcing it from Europe.
Biffa has set a target to quadruple its plastic recycling by 2030, and the rPET supplied to Nestlé Waters will come from the company’s new £27.5m plastic recycling facility in Seaham, County Durham in the UK.
The plant has the capacity to process the equivalent of 1.3bn plastic bottles each year and will supply recycled material to Nestlé Waters’ Buxton factory from 2021.
Michel Beneventi, managing director for Nestlé Waters UK, said: “By working together through sharing expertise across our companies to advance PET recycling for circularity, I believe we can be a force for good, helping to create positive, long-lasting impact and change for the planet.
“Having access to a local rPET supply reduces the carbon footprint of producing, sourcing, and transporting our packaging from outside the UK and demonstrates the value that plastic drinks bottles have when they are recycled.
“Nestlé Waters has ambitious commitments to sustainability, with a pledge for all its brands to be carbon neutral by 2025. This collaboration with Biffa is a big step towards helping us achieve that and making a circular system for plastics a reality.”
Chris Hanlon, commercial manager at Biffa Polymers, added: “At Biffa, a key pillar of our sustainability strategy is to help build a circular economy in the UK, part of which is to help our customers develop sustainable packaging that can fit into the closed-loop recycling system that we are working to develop.
“The collaboration with Nestlé Waters UK is a great example of this strategy in action, using recycled plastic to manufacture plastic bottles for resale. It demonstrates that when used correctly, plastic can have a sustainable role in modern life and we’re very much looking forward to working with Nestlé Waters UK and helping it to achieve its recycling goals."
