A shared sustainability vision: Recycling value chain must come together, urges Coca-Cola Europe Sustainability Head

03 Sep 2019 --- Ahead of Packaging Innovations 2019 in London next week, PackagingInsights speaks to Nick Brown, Head of Sustainability for Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP), about the multifaceted challenge of increased environmental sustainability in packaging. For Brown, this year’s show will be the first that is built to “really focus on sustainability” as the issue takes on a higher profile in public discourse. In a wide-ranging interview, Brown discusses Coca-Cola GB’s increased use of recycled plastics, its support for a nationwide Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and strategies to improve consumer recycling.

What do you anticipate to be the major theme(s) at Packaging Innovations 2019 in London?
Brown: I have been coming to the show for several years and this year feels like the first time the program has been built to really focus on sustainability. Some in our industry have been doing a lot on the issue over the last few years but we have to be honest when we say many haven’t. There have been too many organizations promoting new designs and materials without understanding the environmental impact of their sourcing and manufacture or what happens to them at the end of their life. Now that the environmental issues are better understood and have a much higher profile in public discourse, I’m hoping that this year’s show is where the industry demonstrates that it is listening, it understands and it is changing.

Coca-Cola GB is on track to double the amount of rPET used in plastic bottles across all brands to at least 50 percent by early 2020. What are the main challenges in sourcing and manufacturing increasingly high percentages of rPET and how can these challenges be overcome?
Brown: It’s true that the use of recycled materials at high rates comes with some challenges which the industry traditionally has not understood. We started working on using recycled plastics in 1991 and 2011 helped to build the UK’s only bottle to bottle reprocessing plant. There is a lot to learn about the collection and reprocessing of materials and there are some specific challenges in the UK because of the way collection and materials trading works. We can get to 50 percent across our portfolio within the current system but to get much further, we know we need better collection systems which is why we’ve been supporting a well-designed DRS for plastic bottles and cans. We are proving this around the world where Coca-Cola has several products in plastic bottles made solely from recycled plastic and we will be launching the same here in the UK when all our Glaceau Smart Water will move to 100 percent rPET bottles later this year.

Coca-Cola's 100 percent rPET GLACÉAU smartwater bottle.In what other ways is CCEP working to increase the sustainability of its packaging?
Brown: Here in the UK, we are doing a range of things to make our packaging as sustainable as possible. We continue to optimize the packaging we use – at the moment we have 21 live projects reducing the weight of different pieces of packaging we use. We also know from our work with recyclers that although all our bottles and cans are recyclable, some are more recyclable than others. Although our green plastic and glass bottles can be recycled, they are less valuable and have to be removed from the clear bottles to make the new bottles we want, so we are moving our Sprite plastic and glass bottles from green materials to clear. We also continue to work to encourage our consumers to do the right thing with their packaging when they’ve finished with it – we have introduced more on-pack messaging, more materials for our customers to use at the point of sale and more communications campaigns. We have to acknowledge that despite all this, some people still litter packaging from our products so we continue to support anti-litter groups across the country who are leading great behavior change and clean-up campaigns.

CCEP is evidently making progress towards its World Without Waste goals, but what is the biggest remaining challenge?
Brown: We have been working on some of these issues for a long time and the interest from customers and policymakers has opened up new opportunities for collaboration. There are so many stakeholders in the waste and recycling industry and bringing everyone together to agree on a shared way forward is really important to make the biggest impact.

The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recently announced the results of its waste management consultations, reporting strong support for a plastics tax, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme and DRS. What advice would you give to the government as it looks to implement these strategies to ensure they have the desired effect?
Brown: For many years we have been calling for reform of the way waste and recycling services are designed and paid for because we think that’s an essential step in improving resource efficiency and reducing waste packaging. Overall, we support the package of policies, which were consulted on earlier in the year. We support a well-designed DRS for plastic bottles and cans across the UK and we support the move to a more standardized household recycling collection scheme, funded by an increase in contributions from companies who use packaging. We also agree with the need to encourage the use of recycled materials as at the moment they come with more technical challenges and are more expensive than virgin materials but we do think it can be achieved within the proposed EPR scheme rather than the very complicated proposal in the taxation policy consultation. We recognize that waste and recycling is a devolved policy area but we do encourage the governments across the UK to work together on these policies so we can all move more quickly and maximize the impact of the proposed changes.

UK recycling and waste management infrastructure are reported to be poor and inconsistent across the country. Do you feel that this lack of efficiency has negative effects on Coca-Cola’s sustainability goals, and how would you like to see it improved to help your company meet its ambitions?
Brown: Speaking specifically about the UK, we do think the way services are designed and paid for needs to change for us to move to the next step in resource efficiency and waste elimination. That’s why we have been supporting the introduction of a well-designed DRS for plastic bottles and cans across the country, along with the other policies currently being consulted on.

 Bringing the many stakeholders in the waste and recycling industry together to agree on a shared vision is key to sustainability success, says Brown.Consumers can be quick to judge the leading FMCGs in light of the growing plastic pollution crisis, but in what ways can the public help minimize the problem and how are you working to educate consumers about effective recycling behavior?
Brown: We all have a role to play in improving recycling and reducing littering but we as an industry should make it easier for the people who want to do the right thing. We should be designing better packaging, making it clearer what can and can’t be recycled and then we should all contribute more to the design, running and funding of better collection systems. It will then be easier for us all to communicate to the public how to use the services they have. We also need a more sensible discussion as a society about litter and littering. We need to acknowledge that some people want to do the right thing and it can be difficult but that isn’t an excuse for littering and that’s an area which is missing from the current policy debate. The biggest barrier our consumers have to recycling is confusion over what can be recycled and how to do it – that’s why we’ve put more messaging on our packs to reassure people that plastic bottles can be recycled, while we also try and give a consistent message in our customers’ outlets and our marketing.

On a personal level, what are you hoping to learn or discover at Packaging Innovations 2019?
Brown: I am particularly interested to walk the stands to see what creative solutions packaging companies and service providers have developed to help with the challenges of making the packaging industry more sustainable. There are some great speakers too with real stories of innovation and I’m sure I’ll come away with a few great things I didn’t know about before.

What is your contribution to this year’s show?
Brown: I’m delighted to be on a panel with Trewin Restorick from Hubbub and Santiago Navarro from Garçon Wines – I know them both well. Trewin has great experiences in how to encourage consumer behavior change. Santiago has led a fascinating change at Garçon Wines, showing just what the industry can do when we combine an understanding of some of the issues packaging can cause, a passion to do things better and creativity in design and marketing to challenge category norms for packaging.

By Joshua Poole