toward closing the loop for bottled beverages: nestle waters, wm-green ops, mcdonough braungart...
DESCRIPTION
In this 2009 Sustainable Brands presentation, join four experts from the fields of business, design, and waste management to learn about the ways in which recycling is becoming an interactive aspect of branding and marketing.TRANSCRIPT
Toward Closing the Loop in the
Bottled Beverage Industry
Andrius Dapkus, Nestlé Waters North America
Paul Ligon, WM-Green Ops, LLC
James Ewell, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry
Anthony Zolezzi, Greenopolis
Recycling in the U.S.
FACT: Nearly 40% of U.S. households do not have access to curbside recycling1
FACT: The current consumer recycling rate for plastic water bottles is 23.4%2
FACT: 86% of Americans would recycle more if it was easier3
1 Source: American Forest & Paper Association. "2007 AF&PA Community Survey.“
2 Source: National Association for PET Container Resources. “2007 Report on PET Water Bottle Recycling.”
3 Source: Container Recycling Institute 2007
Barriers
• Limited access, convenience and education about recycling
• Consumer mindset that plastic is waste
• Value, supply and lack of producer demand for rPET
• Inconsistencies in government policies
• Need for authenticated “clean stream” of rPET
• Challenges of building rPET market
Our Challenge
Can we create the first closed-loop system for plastic water bottles?
A Unique Collaboration
• Common vision for more effective reuse and recycling of plastic
• Cross-industry collaboration
• Founded on concept of shared responsibility
• Intensive, year-long planning process
Approach
Create a brand and recycling system designed to directly engage consumers in the importance of recycling
•Increase consumer education
•Implement retail-based recycling programs
•Offer consumers an incentive to recycle
•Demonstrate the valuable uses for recycled plastics
•Give consumers opportunities to recycle beyond curbside
•Fully leverage the power of a brand and packaging
•Recapture and recycle as many plastic bottles as produced
•Reduce waste by increasing access and visibility of recycling programs
An important first step toward changing consumer behavior
and increasing U.S. recycling rates
Partner Point of View
• The leader in healthy hydration
• Track record of environmental stewardship
• Recognized the need to address both societal and environmental issues with our stakeholders
Nestlé Waters plays an important societal role, whether ensuring healthy
hydration for an on-the-go culture, serving as a convenient alternative to sugared
beverages, or as a reliable, safe source of water in disasters. At the same time,
our company is committed to deeper sustainability and we must evolve our
business to address both social and environmental issues.
“
”– Kim Jeffery
Nestlé Waters N.A.
Partner Point of View
We believe that businesses as well as individuals must assume their
share of responsibility as tenants of Planet Earth. The use of recycled
plastic in re-source™ bottles and the innovative in-store recycling pilot
program will help to raise recycling awareness and give our customers
another opportunity to be part of the solution.
“
”– Michael Besancon
Whole Foods Market
• Need for more responsible product choices
• Opportunity to engage customers in the solution
• Must be authentic and transparent
Partner Point of View
• Consumers are looking to recycle packaging materials away from home and work
• GreenOps contributes to internal goal of tripling material recycled
• Less than 30% of packaging material is recycled each year in the U.S., wasting very valuable natural resources
“
”– David Steiner
Waste Management
Sustainability means so many things to us at Waste Management – and to the people we do business with every day. But perhaps most important, it means that we are helping our company and our customers run better, more efficient, more environmentally conscious businesses and households. One of our chief goals going forward is to increase the volume of recyclable materials we process. Today that number stands at more than 7 million tons per year-- we expect to triple that number between now and 2020.
GreenOps Summary
• Consumer oriented recovery system
• Product tracking
• Point of use rewards
• Recovery authentication/ verification
• Reverse logistics and processing
• On-line rewards, information and interaction
• Scalability
To eliminate the concept of waste means to design things – products,
packaging and systems – from the very beginning on the understanding
that waste does not exist; it means that the valuable nutrients contained
in the materials share and determine the design.
Partner Point of View
Understanding and Optimizing Life Cycle Design:
“Safe Nutrients Flowing in Cycles”
“
”– William McDonough & Michael Braungart
Cradle to Cradle
Cradle to Cradle Certification
1.0 Material Health
2.0 Material Reutilization/DfE
3.0 Energy
4.0 Water
5.0 Social Responsibility
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Basic
• Combination of product metrics & company metrics
• Spur innovation & ongoing optimization
The Result: re-source™ Natural Spring Water
• Brand dedicated to directly engaging consumers in the importance of recycling
• Bottles made of 25% recycled plastic
• Pilot of incentive-based, in-store recycling programs at select Whole Foods Markets
• For every plastic beverage container recycled, 5 cents will be donated to Keep America Beautiful, up to $200,000
• Consumer education about recycling via packaging, POS and Web site
• Cradle to CradleCM certification and GreenOps seal
• Building rPET market infrastructure so recycled bottles can have a second life as a new product
• Consumer tools to track and measure recycling efforts
CPG
Consumer info and
package data
Consumer rewards &
incentives
ECOSTATION automated recapture
GreenOps inclusion on packaging1Consumer purchase, consumption, disposal
choice
2
End-of-life product recapture, data collection and tracking3
Pickup , backhaul and commodity
processing & support
4 Beneficial end-of-life reuse such as recycled, reprocessed
products
5
re-source/GreenOps Process Flow
Think
Green
Rewards
Milestones-to-Date
• re-source product launch – Earth Day 2009• Over 1MM bottles available at Whole Foods Market locations
nationwide
• Recycling pilot program launch in select Whole Food Market locations
• Capturing PET, HDPE, AL, glass product packaging• Tracking over 7,000 products (and growing)• Initial evidence suggests significant brand lift for products
associated with tracking system as well as increases in retail foot traffic
• ThinkGreen rewards created and linked to GreenOps Tracking Stations
• On-line rewards platform that allows consumer to track and discuss individual product recycling activities
Key Learnings
• Collaboration is critical
• Need to consider sustainability efforts from all angles
• Dare to have a big vision
• Set long-term goals to work toward
• Don’t wait for perfection
• Every journey starts with small steps
Looking Ahead
• Continued rollout of recycling pilot program
• Plan to reach 200 Whole Foods Market locations by September 2009
• Steadily build infrastructure for rPET market
• Gradually increase percentage of rPET in bottles
• Long-term goal of 100% rPET bottle