Nescafe pursues sustainable packaging efforts for jars, sachets

Nescafe is the number one coffee brand in the world. According to its website, an amazing 4,600 cups of Nescafe coffee are drank every second worldwide.

Things like product packaging may be of little concern to small companies, but not to this coffee giant. To address this, the company is investing 500 million Swiss francs (CHF) in various projects from 2011 to 2020. Part of this funding goes to Beyond the cup: the Nescafe plan


Two of these projects, developing sustainable packaging for their coffee sachets and jars, have already resulted in initial successes for the company.
 
Nescafe starts using stick packs instead of square sachets 

As single-serve packaging, square shaped Nescafe sachets contribute to over a thousand tonnes of packaging material used globally each year.

Nescafe has managed to reduce the amount of packaging used by 27 percent, truly a significant figure, given the scale. The solution was using a stick pack instead of the traditional square one. Nescafe sticks use much less materials, while still maintaining the coffee freshness Nescafe drinkers have grown to love.

Nescafe redesigns glass jars, innovates the way jars are made

Meanwhile, the glass used to create glass Nescafe coffee jars was another concern the company wanted to solve. Nescafe, aside from using recycled glass, opted to use less glass as well.

They did this by innovating the design of their jars. Sharp edges were replaced by smooth edges and weight distribution was improved, leading to less glass requirements to make each Nescafe jar. Moreover, the company managed to lessen the weight of its jar cap and streamline its design, so that less plastic is used for making the caps.

This innovation was also a huge success. In Japan, from 2004 to 2008, Nescafe was able to save a total of 7,672 tonnes of glass, equivalent to 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Approximately, this is the amount of carbon dioxide 1,300 cars produce in a year. Moreover, 200,000 cubic meters of water, enough to supply 3,000 people for an entire year, were saved.

To learn more about how Nescafe is protecting tomorrow's world, visit their official website, where all the information in this post was sourced from.

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