Recycling Archives - MARKETECH APAC

United States – Popular soft drinks brand Sprite is ditching the iconic green look across its plastic bottles in favour of a much clearer one that is more eco-friendly. This will start on August 1 this year.

According to the Coca-Cola Company, while green plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is recyclable, like the ones used in the old bottles, the recycled material is more often converted into single-use items like clothing and carpeting that cannot be recycled into new PET bottles.

During the sorting process, green and other coloured PET is separated from clear material to avoid discolouring recycled food-grade packaging required to make new PET bottles.

Julian Ochoa, CEO at R3CYCLE, said, “Taking colours out of bottles improves the quality of the recycled material. This transition will help increase availability of food-grade rPET. When recycled, clear PET Sprite bottles can be remade into bottles, helping drive a circular economy for plastic.”

In addition to transitioning to clear bottles, Sprite is introducing a new visual identity system featuring a revamped logo and packaging design to provide a consistent look and voice around the world. Sprite’s packaging graphics will retain the brand’s recognizable green hue and include prominent ‘Recycle Me’ messaging.

Hong Kong – A.S. Watson Group’s flagship health and beauty brand Watsons has announced the rollout of its region-wide recycling programme with cosmetics company L’Oréal in Hong Kong. This rides on the hugely successful launch of recycling programmes in Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Through the programme, Watsons Hong Kong has partnered with L’Oréal to roll out the ‘Beauty for the Future’ recycling campaign. From now on, customers can recycle the cleaned containers of any beauty brand, including foundation bottles, mascara wands, skincare tubs, and lipstick tubes at around 170 Watsons stores across the city in exchange for rewards at loyalty platform MoneyBack.

Once collected, its partner V Cycle will break down the wastes, separate them by materials, and work with local partners to transform them into new raw materials. The scaled-up campaign goal is to collect 250,000 containers in the 12 months following the official launch.

Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson for Asia and Europe, said, “At Watsons, we believe Going Green is The New Beautiful. We made it our purpose to do the right things for our customers and the planet. Sharing a common sustainability vision with L’Oréal, we appreciate this Beauty of Recycling partnership in the region to educate customers as well as engage them in action so that together we can create a bigger impact to the planet today and tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Eva Yu, president and managing director of L’Oréal Hong Kong, commented, “Pre-loved beauty packages have their place, but that place is not in landfills. Our goal is to meet it head-on with the first cross-brand recycling programme involving 18 of our beauty brands in 2021. Today, we are thrilled to work with partners along the value chain to expand the programme and positively impact people’s lives while preserving the planet.”

She added, “With the scaled-up recycling campaign as part of our ‘L’Oréal for the Future’ sustainability programme, we want to further inspire and influence how our consumers think and what they do about packaging wastes – not as something to toss out, but as a resource that can be recycled and used again, and sustainably, reducing the impact on our environment. Our partnership with Watsons and V Cycle will help make this a reality.”

Australia – As plastic waste continues to damage the environment, global packaging company Amcor has decided to release soft plastic food wrapper made with recycled content, to be the first of its kind in Australia.

The initiative aims to keep waste out of landfills and meet consumer demands for more sustainable packaging. Amcor has collaborated with several companies such as Nestlé and Viva Energy Australia and also with similar environment advocate organizations like CurbCycle and REDcycle to leverage each of their expertise to create the prototype wrapper which is for Nestle’s KitKat. The project will be collecting and processing soft plastic waste, and turn it back into oil using advanced recycling technology.

According to the packaging company, the prototype wrapper demonstrates the opportunity to close-the-loop on recycling soft plastics.

Simon Roy, the vice president, and general manager of Amcor Flexibles in Australia and New Zealand, said that this is an exciting time for Amcor, as this project is fully aligned with the commitment to ensure all packagings be designed to be recyclable or reusable by 2025.

“Soft plastics create a strong consumer-friendly packaging solution with great barrier properties and are lightweight and cost-efficient. This collaboration shows how soft plastics can be part of the circular economy when stakeholders across the entire value chain work together and is a fantastic outcome for the environment and our communities,” said Roy.

Meanwhile, Sandra Martinez, CEO of Nestlé Australia, commented, “Between us, we have shown there’s a pathway to solve the soft plastics problem. Manufacturers like Nestlé will have a key role in driving demand for food-grade recycled soft plastic packaging and creating market conditions that will ensure all stakeholders throughout the value chain view soft plastics as a resource and not waste.”

Last year, Nestlé’s KitKat and RED Group have similarly teamed up to launch the recycling program ‘REDcycle’, in an aim to collect soft plastics, including KitKat wrappers, to be turned into new materials such as benches and fences. The campaign also saw KitKat transforming its logo, shaping its chocolate wafers to take the form of the recycle symbol.

Australia – KitKat Australia has temporarily replaced its logo to now don bent KitKat sticks formed into a recycling symbol, to encourage consumers to recycle its wrappers. Across the logo, also says a new line, “Recycle me, give the planet a break.”

The initiative is in partnership with Melbourne-based consulting and recycling organization RED Group, in its recycling program REDcycle, which collects soft plastics to be turned into new materials such as benches and fences.

RED Group has installed special “REDcycle” collection points. Aside from KitKat wrappers, any form of soft plastic, through KitKat’s new initiative – such as noodle wrappers, confectionary bags, and cereal or muesli box liners – is also encouraged to be properly disposed of into the special bins.

KitKat encourages a “scrunch test” for people to know how to identify a soft plastic. To do the test, one only has to try to scrunch any plastic into a ball.

KitKat’s manufacturer Nestlé says on its website, that its vision is that none of its packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfills, in oceans, lakes, and rivers.

“We are working hard to deliver on it and help achieve a waste-free future. To achieve this, our commitment is that 100% of our packaging is recyclable or reusable by 2025,” said the company.