Britvic supports Global Recycling Day
News General news
At Britvic we are always mindful of how we use resources and Global Recycling Day gives us an annual opportunity to reflect on our progress.
In 2020, the framework for the UK’s first deposit return scheme (DRS) had just been laid before the Scottish Parliament. Now, with the DRS regulations passed, Britvic is proud to be a founding signatory of Circularity Scotland – an organisation of producers and retailers seeking approval from the Scottish Government to run the scheme. We know that if we are successful, we will be able to deliver a well-designed, industry-led and not-for-profit scheme that will make a real difference to recycling levels.
As well as increasing the amount of recycling, we are also determined to increase the amount of recycled material in our packaging. This time last year, we were committed to 50% recycled plastic (rPET) in all our bottles by 2025 – since then we have revised our targets and redoubled our efforts: 100% rPET in all bottles made in GB by the end of 2022.
In September 2020, Fruit Shoot Hydro bottles made the switch to 100% rPET – saving 640 tonnes of virgin plastic a year and, in Ireland, 100% of all Ballygowan Mineral Water plastic bottles are now made with rPET – saving another 1,300 tonnes of virgin plastic every year.
In Northern Ireland, we supported one of the first DRS trials in the UK which saw two thousand households in Whitehead taking part in Cryptocycle's Reward4Waste scheme and earning cash rewards for recycling their bottles and cans.
In France, our Pressade juices launched a new range using Tetra Gemina Craft bio-sourced technology: a carton that uses 81% renewable materials, including 75% FSC-certified cardboard and 6% vegetable plastic from sugar cane residue.
In Brazil, we use cashew fruit in our juices, cashew nuts in our nut milk range, nut shell for fuel and sell the cashew fibre for use in vegan burgers.
Wherever we operate in the world we are constantly looking at how we can reduce, reuse and recycle the resources we use. We know that recycling is crucial in the fight against the climate crisis and are committed to another year of innovation to help bring about a world where great packaging never becomes waste.
