Nestlé Pakistan replaces 400 million plastic straws with paper straws

Nestlé Pakistan became the first food and beverage company in Pakistan to introduce paper straws across its ready-to-drink products, an initiative that will eliminate 400 million plastic straws annually.

Marking a breakthrough in its sustainable packaging transformation journey, the company has made a global pledge to make its packaging 100% recyclable and reusable by 2025. Locally, Nestlé’s brands – NESVITA, MILO®, FRUITAVITALS, NESFRUTA and NESCAFÉ’s RTD products – are now in the market with paper straws.

Highlighting Nestlé’s global sustainable packaging transformation journey, Nestlé Pakistan CEO, Samer Chedid said, “Our vision is that none of our packaging, including plastics, ends up in landfill nor in oceans, lakes and rivers. To achieve this, we have set ourselves the commitment of ensuring 100% of our packaging is reusable and recyclable by 2025, and the switch to paper straws is a major step towards this.”

“We encourage millions of trusted Nestlé consumers in Pakistan to embrace this change and join us in our journey towards a more sustainable future,” he said, adding that while many people are used to plastic straws, making the switch to paper straws will bring a slightly different consumer experience.

Cognizant of the challenges and the importance of plastic packaging, Chedid pointed out, “Plastic packaging plays an important role in safely delivering high-quality food and drinks to consumers and reducing food loss and waste.”

“We believe that with the right approach, collection and recycling of plastic is possible without causing a detrimental effect on the environment,” he added.

Paper straws have been sourced responsibly, met stringent quality requirements and were safe to drink from. They are made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and are only sourced from suppliers that have passed audits to ensure that they obtain responsibly sourced paper. Nestlé is committed to ensure that the switch to paper straws does not result in new deforestation and is not sourced from suppliers with poor forest management. Using paper-based packaging is just one of several actions they are taking as part of our broad set of solutions to reduce plastic packaging waste in a meaningful and sustainable way.

Nestlé Pakistan is also one of the founding members of CoRe (Collect & Recycle), the first ever packaging alliance in Pakistan formed with the mission to eliminate packaging waste by enabling formal collection and recycling, while also raising awareness at a mass level.

Earlier, Nestlé Pakistan also partnered with World Bank and the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the TREK initiative to make northern areas waste-free and promote responsible tourism in the region.

These efforts to reduce the environmental impact of packaging waste by improving its management and recycling are in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals 12 and 17 – Responsible Consumption & Production and Partnership for Goals.