We aim to make our packaging circular
At Danone UK & Ireland, we want to offer nutritious, high-quality food and drink in packaging that is circular, keeping materials in use and out of nature.
Packaging is fundamental to our ability to provide consumers around the world with food and drink – but we recognise that this cannot come at the environment's expense. As a company committed to protecting and nourishing the health of the planet and people, we want to play our part in accelerating the transition from a linear to a circular economy of packaging.
We aim to make our packaging circular. This means:
- Eliminating the packaging we don’t need;
- Innovating so all the packaging we do need is designed to be safely reused, recycled or composted;
- Ensuring the material we produce stays in the economy and never becomes waste or pollution.
PACKAGING DESIGNED FOR CIRCULARITY
In the UK & Ireland, our goal for 2025 is for every piece of packaging—from bottles to yogurt pots—to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Partnering action on plastics
We are a member of the Repak Plastics Pledge. We're acting to meet objectives which are designed to:
- Reduce plastic packaging
- Make packaging more recyclable
- Minimise food waste.
RECYCLED, REUSED, OR COMPOSTED IN PRACTICE
Redesigning packaging for circularity won’t do much good, if the waste management systems aren’t in place to ensure it is recycled, reused or composted. That’s why Danone is committed to help co-build effective and inclusive systems for collection, reuse and recycling.
We believe we need to work collaboratively with industry and government, so we are actively engaged in encouraging legislative changes to improve the recycling infrastructure across Ireland. We support the proposed deposit return scheme for plastic bottles here in Ireland.
PRESERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
In the UK & Ireland, our goal for 2025 is to expand the amount of recycled or bio-plastic used in our packaging. By 2025 in Ireland, we will reach 30% recycled material on average in our plastic packaging.
Transitioning to a circular economy means seeking to no longer use packaging from finite resources. This helps preserve natural resources and keep existing materials in use and out of nature.
To reduce the need for newly created material, we are working to increase recycled content. We are also developing renewable materials that further decouple packaging from natural resource use.
For example since 2020, our top selling evian bottles have been made from 100% recycled plastic (excluding cap and label).