Nestlé Jamaica: a friend of the environment
BAD HABITS die hard, and if anything validates this saying, it is the approximately 12.7 million tonnes of plastic that enter the world’s oceans, rivers, and waterways every year and the waste that occupies landfills worldwide. They simply do not break down and die.
For many reasons, this reality precipitates a need for humanity to think more responsibly about what we create, use and dispose of as landfills can only hold so much before quality of life is significantly impacted.
Recently, Daryl Vaz, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, made an announcement of a nationwide ban on plastics beginning in January 2019. Private-sector interests have voiced concerns about the time frame within which they are expected to transition to environmentally friendly packaging. However, Nestlé Jamaica has already begun its transition to a plastic-free organisation. Globally, Nestlé announced earlier this year its position on plastics and its selfimposed deadline to make 100 per cent of its product packaging recyclable or re-usable by 2025 and to ensure that none of it ends up as landfill.
Nestlé Global CEO Mark Schneider elaborated, “Plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, reuse, and recycle.”
PLASTIC-FREE MONTH
In Jamaica, the company has begun incentivising environmentally responsible behaviours among its team members. A Plastic-Free Month campaign was rolled out in October to further discourage single-use plastics on site and reward responsible behaviours outlined in the campaign rules. Other strategies are targeted recycling of the Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules, onproperty policies governing the use of Styrofoam and nonbiodegradable packaging for meal service, and a comprehensive environmental-management system to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiencies in both the head office and distribution centre – relating to the cooling and lighting of the facility and the placement of recycling hubs at strategic points across the property. These hubs include recycle bins for aluminium, glass, paper, plastic products.
According to Nestlé Jamaica’s facilities, safety, health and environment manager, Antoinette Peart, “We have a captive audience in our employees, through which we can be the change we want to see regarding better environmentally conscious behaviours. Our team members, having adopted a more environmentally responsible culture, will be ambassadors outside of the organisation to help drive awareness and better resource (including waste) management. Recycling is a great tool, but we try to drive home that if we didn’t use the resource in the first place, then there will be little need to manage the waste created, which would also include recycling.”
‘Plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, reuse and recycle.’