Nestlé Waters achieves zero waste to landfill at £35m Buxton bottling plant

The company, which produces the Buxton and Nestlé Pure Life brands, achieved the waste figures one year ahead of the organisation’s sustainability schedule.

Nestlé Waters UK chief executive Federico Sarzi Braga said: “One year on from officially opening our state-of-the-art UK facilities in Buxton, we have reached a new milestone achieving zero waste-to-landfill at both our factory and our head office sites.

“To achieve this one year ahead of schedule is particularly satisfying for all of our employees and a tribute to the innovative way that Nestlé Waters has approached our responsibilities in waste diversion whilst also building on our efforts of how we create value in a wider community.”

Almost all waste paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass and wooden pallets from the factory and the head office is now reprocessed into new products, with almost half returning to Nestlé Waters for reuse. The company states that the success has been achieved through a sustained programme of employee engagement.

The company’s £35m factory produces lightweight bottled water products, reducing PET plastic usage by 25%. The factory achieved BREEAM Excellent certification for sustainable building and design.

Nestlé Waters has encouraged recycling behaviour amongst members of the local Buxton community; launching a recycling scheme in June 2013 to encourage schoolchildren to recycle and view waste as a resource. As of the end of 2013, the scheme had collected almost 8,000kg of waste. The company now plans to widen the scheme outside of Buxton.

Further sustainable innovations at the factory include using heat generated in the bottling lines to warm warehouses and office areas, replacing 32kWh of electricity with every thousand bottles of water produced, a 20% energy saving compared with its old factory.

The Nestlé Group announced commitments to reduce waste throughout its supply chain, aiming to have 10% of all factories achieving zero waste to landfill by 2015, and targeting a 40% water reduction across all EU operations in March this year.

Last month, Nestlé Group chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe called for more action to be taken to reduce supply chain waste and address water shortages, urging supply chain stakeholders from farmers to manufacturers to “carefully look at their supply chain and processes.”

Matt Field