Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Danone Waters (UK & Ireland), Nestlé Waters UK and Highland Spring Group with The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) aim to eliminate packaging waste by 2030.
The manifesto includes a pledge to ensure that all bottled water and soft drinks packaging will be made from 100 percent recyclable or reusable material by 2030, with the intent to achieve at least 70 percent recycled material by 2025.
Also proposed is a combined effort by producers and government to find the optimal material that could be used for future packaging and simultaneously eliminate plastic waste while ensuring the lowest overall environmental impact.
Producers and government would also undertake consumer research, in order to establish the recycling habits of consumers to support recycling goals and ultimately achieve a circular economy for bottled water and soft drinks packaging.
The proposals also ask the government to develop a consistent nationwide recycling system, and to reinvest revenue from new policies into UK recycling, sorting and reprocessing capacity.
The manager at the Natural Hydration Council, Kinvara Carey commented: “Our members, along with Lucozade Ribena Suntory, commissioned CISL to help us create a collaborative roadmap to eliminate plastic packaging waste from the bottled water and soft drinks sectors.
“Our members are committed to leading this work and playing an active role in achieving these important goals, and finding solutions to the problem of plastic packaging waste so that none of the packaging ends up in landfill or as litter anywhere in the environment.
“It will be challenging but it is our duty as responsible organisations to deliver our products to people in the most sustainable way possible.
“It needs to be easy for people to dispose of all packaging responsibly, and with the confidence it will not go to landfill waste or worse, escape into the natural environment.”