The Danone approach to packaging sustainability
How does Danone – the owner of leading brands like Evian, Volvic, Actimel, and Activa – approach packaging sustainability? We caught up with Irène de la Torre, the company’s Global Packaging Circular Economy Director, to learn more.
To kick things off, could you give us a general overview of Danone’s packaging sustainability goals and objectives in Europe?
Our approach to sustainable packaging is based on two complementary pillars. Our first objective is to contribute to plastic production reduction by implementing a circular and low-carbon economy approach. To reach this goal, we are working on the design of our products to eliminate unnecessary packaging elements, reduce virgin fossil plastics by using recycled materials or renewables, explore alternative materials, and develop reusable packaging solutions.
Our second objective is to ensure the plastic that cannot be eliminated is reused or recycled in practice and at scale so that plastic never becomes waste or pollution, actively supporting the development of collection, recycling, and reuse systems, such as Deposit Return Schemes for beverage bottles for example.
Yet voluntary action by individual companies is not enough and can only be one part of the solution. Only by collaborating throughout the value chain, upstream with suppliers and partners, and downstream with retailers, waste collection services and regulators, can we tackle the plastic pollution issue and drive packaging transformation.
And how are things progressing? Have there been any specific projects or initiatives that have had a particularly significant impact on Danone’s journey toward reaching its objectives?
Since 2018, date of issue of our latest packaging policy, we already made some important strides on each of our goals, reducing our global virgin plastic footprint by 70,000 tons (-10% compared to 2018), increasing the recyclability (84% of our products are either reusable, recyclable or compostable) and nearly doubling the use of recycled plastics. For example, 35% of our water bottles in Europe are now made of recycled plastic (rPET).
