Waste & packaging

Although we achieved our waste disposal target in 2012 – eight years ahead of schedule – we have gone further, continuing to drive improvements. In 2017 we disposed of 147,444 fewer tonnes of total waste than in 2008 - a 98%^† reduction per tonne of production.

We achieved our target of zero non-hazardous waste to landfill one year early, at the end of 2014. We believe this was a first for a company of our scale in our industry. Our focus since has been on maintaining zero non-hazardous waste to landfill, recognising that this is about an ongoing journey rather than achieving this for a moment in time.

In 2017, 11 sites disposed of a small amount of non-hazardous waste to landfill. We take any lapses very seriously. We are confident our overall achievement is still industry leading and we have robust procedures in place to highlight any issues so that remedial action can be swiftly taken.

By replicating our zero waste model in other parts of our business, nearly 400 additional non-manufacturing sites have also eliminated non-hazardous waste to landfill.

Treating plastic packaging as a valuable resource is a key priority in accelerating our efforts to a circular economy.

In January 2017 we announced that all our plastic packaging will be designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. As part of this target, we will ensure it is technically possible and commercially viable for our plastic packaging to be reused or recycled. We have also committed to invest in proving, and then sharing with the industry, a technical solution to recycle multi-layered sachets, particularly for coastal areas which are most at risk of plastics leaking into the ocean.

Our results show that our efforts in the last few years to reduce packaging through innovations, lightweighting and material switching are now becoming visible. The results are also impacted by the effect of acquisitions and disposals.

Commercialising MuCell™ moulding technology has allowed us to reduce the plastic component in bottles by up to 15% versus the previous bottle. We estimate that this will bring significant reductions in the amount of plastics we use once applied to other products. Other examples of reduction initiatives include the use of compression injection technology in many of our tubs, conversion of bottles to flexible refill pouches and smart use of design strategy and technology enabling us to reduce layers within many of our sachets.

Recycling and recovery is a challenging target because we are reliant on public policy, infrastructure and consumer engagement. Despite this, we have seen an improvement in our recycling rate. The volume of materials recycled or recovered increased by 8% over 2016-2017 compared to our 2010 baseline.

In 2017 we saw an increase in the volume of post-consumer recycled materials incorporated into our rigid plastic packaging. For example, in Argentina, we increased the content of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in Cif bottles to 50% in 2017.

Availability of recycled content at an acceptable quality level remains a key challenge for us in many of our markets around the world. We have therefore started collaboration initiatives focused on producing quality recyclates which we are trialling in many of our packaging formats.

Our aim is to develop a closed loop system for sachet waste. This will allow us to continue to provide the price and convenience of sachets to low-income consumers, while tackling the environmental issues associated with their use. These include litter and recyclability.

Over the last four years, we have co-developed a new technology using a chemical process called CreaSolv™. The technology produces quality polymers that can be used to make plastic that can be used again and again – offering the potential for a circular economy model. We have proven through large scale industrial trails that CreaSolv™ is a technically viable solution to recycling sachets.

We will be trialling the use of CreaSolv™ at a commercial scale at our Indonesian pilot plant in 2018. As an industry, we need to build a recycling infrastructure for sachet collection that supports the process - creating a circular model all can share. We hope that CreaSolv™ will transform sachets from a global problem into a sustainable economic opportunity.

We have made very good progress in eliminating PVC from our packaging, including from the acquisitions we have made in recent years.

We have a robust system in place to ensure that any PVC entering the business through acquisitions is swiftly dealt with, and where there are no viable replacement options, such as the PVC used within the seals of metal lids, we are working with suppliers to develop appropriate technology to replace these materials. Replacement solutions can take many years to develop as they need to meet the functional requirements of manufacturing, filling and consumer use.

By the end of 2017, we achieved our target of zero waste to landfill at our in-scope sites in our top 21 countries.* We have extended our waste reduction efforts beyond our top 21 countries and an additional 33 sites are now zero waste to landfill.

Paper consumption per occupant is now 62% lower than our 2010 baseline in our top 21 countries and we will continue to push consumption lower.

Although 73% of our in-scope transactions (excluding financial reporting and employee expense processes) were completed electronically in 2015, subsequent progress has been challenging. Some countries do not yet allow electronic invoicing and we have found there is still a reluctance amongst some suppliers to accept e-invoicing. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to eliminating paper in our business and financial services processes.