September's Positive Corporate News

September's Positive Corporate News

Nestlé Waters will start producing bottles made of recycled plastic.

The brand has partnered with Biffa, a waste management firm, which will supply Nestlé with a British supply of recycled plastic (aka rPET). This is better than the plastic feedstock that Nestlé had previously, which was recyclable PET from Europe. So it's better materials because it's not virgin plastic PLUS less transport since it's all in the UK.

For the moment, this is going to help Nestlé Waters reach its goal of having Buxton water bottles made from 100% recycled plastic. Then, by 2025, Biffa will also supply recycled plastic for other brands like S.Pellegrino, Nestlé Pure Life and Perrier.

These bottles will soon be made of rPET. Photo: FoodBev Media

Boots now has an in-store take-back scheme for all of our hard-to-recycle packaging.

All of our empty products and packaging - not just things we bought from Boots - can be taken to their stores to be recycled. This is really great news, especially considering how much packaging we have that is difficult to recycle.

Boots has launched this take-back scheme across 50 different stores in the UK. Firstly, products need to be scanned via a dedicated website and then be brought to the store. Plus, as an incentive, for every 5 items deposited, customers will get £5 worth of Boots Advantage Card Points!

The products will then be transformed into new products by their recycling partner ReWorked.

Boots isn't the first company to do this take-back recycling scheme. Actually, you can go to John Lewis for the same thing, and also The Co-op has a collection system for "scrunchable" plastics like plastic bags and food wrappers. Go team!

Rewarded for recycling! Photo: Packaging News

McDonald's and McCain are helping their potato famers improve soil health and boost their climate resilience.

McDonald's has launched two new schemes to help its 23,000 farmers.

Firstly, in partnership with its long-term potato supplier McCain, the company is launching a "Sustainable MacFries Fund" to provide grants to British potato growers as well as to invest in soil and water sustainability. Both firms are providing a total £1 million worth of grants which will help farmers use new tech to understand soil quality, optimise water management, support new infiltration systems and crop monitoring. The money will also go toward research for improving soil quality.

Secondly, McDonald's is also partnering with charity Prince's Countryside Fund for workshops called "Ready for Change" to help its UK livestock farmers with their economic resilience. This is really important considering the charity found that 71% of farmers want to make changes to their business but lack the confidence to do so and only one third of farmers have business plans that take into account the changes in direct subsidies associated with Brexit.

Often you'll see these kind of climate resilience and livelihood improvement schemes for farmers in the global South, so it's really interesting to see these happening in the UK via large brands like McDonald's or McCain.

Potatoes :D Photo: Business Green

Marks & Spencer are blessing us with garlic bread... made from surplus unsold bread.

M&S is taking unsold fresh baguettes at the end of the day, adding garlic butter, and freezing these so they can last 30 extra days.

It's an interesting and innovating scheme because even though they do redistribute excess/unsold food with their charity partners, this scheme involves their customers more deeply in the problem... and solution by raising awareness. They call this "Sparking Change".

Plus, the frozen garlic bread is sold in 100% recyclable packaging and is only £1! Yummmm.

Who doesn't like garlic bread?? Photo: The Grocer