Final month, Aqua, a bottled water model made by French shopper items agency Danone emerged on high of a rating of Indonesia’s greatest plastic polluters by Sungai Watch, an environmental non-profit that collects garbage from rivers in Bali, the place it’s headquartered, and East Java.
The rating was not a superb search for Aqua, considered one of Indonesia’s few B Corp-certified firms that prides itself on its sustainability efforts, significantly in plastic waste discount and supporting the nation’s nascent round economic system for plastics.
Karyanto Wibowo, Danone Indonesia’s sustainability director, advised Eco-Enterprise that the outcomes of the waste audit outcomes had been “not consultant” of Indonesia’s waste disposal circumstances, because the analysis solely lined areas the place Sungai Watch had positioned river traps to catch the waste.
He additionally famous that Aqua-branded bottles solely made up a small share of the collected trash general, which primarily consisted of plastic baggage, sanitary napkins and diapers. The proportion of Aqua bottles collected had additionally fallen lately – a development that was not highlighted within the report, Wibowo stated.
Danone stays assured that it will probably hit a sustainability goal that will be onerous for any firm in Indonesia to attain – to get better extra plastics than it makes use of by subsequent 12 months, 2025.
Numerous systemic boundaries should first be overcome, Wibowo stated, together with poor assortment and recycling infrastructure, underdeveloped re-use infrastructure, and a lack of recycled materials that’s “slowing down” the corporate’s efforts.
On this Q&A, Wibowo outlines the measures Danone is taking to scale back its plastic footprint in Indonesia, the world’s second most pollutive nation for plastic waste.
A latest examine by Sungai Watch discovered that one-quarter of all polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles discarded into Indonesian rivers are Aqua-branded water bottles and that the corporate is Indonesia’s high plastic polluter. What’s Danone’s response to the findings?
There are a number of issues that we wish to spotlight with regard to the report. First, the waste audit outcomes weren’t consultant of Indonesia’s waste disposal circumstances. It’s because Sungai Watch solely performed waste audits in rivers situated in a number of areas of Bali and Banyuwangi for this analysis.
For those who have a look at the report, the packaging associated to Aqua merchandise – specifically PET and polypropylene (PP) – make up simply 7 per cent of the whole waste collected. A lot of the waste is within the type of plastic/versatile plastic baggage (20 per cent) and waste supplies resembling sanitary napkins and diapers (31 per cent) are usually not particularly revealed.
Aside from that, packaging that’s tough to recycle, resembling multilayer packaging like single-use sachets, doesn’t obtain particular consideration on this report. Sadly, Danone has been recognized as the largest polluter.
The report additionally reveals that collected waste from Aqua packaging has decreased in comparison with final 12 months, indicating that we have now made progress in managing post-consumer waste. This progress has not obtained sufficient consideration.
Why does Danone promote and market plastic merchandise in international locations like Indonesia, the place there may be little to no waste administration infrastructure?
There may be rising shopper demand for bottled water in Indonesia pushed by well being considerations. Whereas customers have chosen the Danone-Aqua model for high quality hydration since 1973 and we’re the market chief for bottled water in Indonesia, we’re conscious of our environmental footprint and are addressing it.
Indonesia’s waste issues are very advanced. Indonesia’s Regulation No. 18 of 2008 focuses on municipal strong waste administration and aimed to finish all open dump waste disposal by 2013. However till now, Indonesia is struggling to implement that legislation. Some 61 per cent of plastic waste in Indonesia is uncollected and 70 per cent finally ends up mismanaged. That legislation additionally states that waste administration is a shared accountability of all events, together with people, communities, companies, and the federal government.
Danone-Aqua has been implementing waste administration programmes since 1993. We are working in direction of 100 per cent circularity by recovering extra plastic from the atmosphere than we use by 2025, and growing the proportion of recycled plastic in our bottles to 50 per cent by 2025. At present, 70 per cent of our water is delivered in returnable, reusable jugs, which, in keeping with a examine by LPEM College of Indonesia, has prevented 770,000 tonnes of virgin plastic from getting used.
We additionally supply a spread of merchandise with extra sustainable packaging choices. For example, Aqua Life is made fully from recycled supplies and is 100 per cent recyclable. We additionally supply returnable glass bottles and Aqua Dice, that are small packaging choices which might be 100 per cent recyclable and don’t embody straws or labels.
Beneath the #BijakBerplastik (“Plastic sensible”) marketing campaign, which we launched in 2018, we have now additionally developed academic initiatives to combine waste administration into the elementary faculty curriculum, whereas our My Waste, My Accountability (SAMTAKU) academic collection supplies waste administration schooling to younger kids.
We recognise that there’s nonetheless a number of work to be executed, and we stay dedicated to driving optimistic change. Placing accountability solely on producers is just not sensible; waste administration efforts will solely achieve success if carried out collectively, and contain the federal government and customers in addition to producers.
In 2018, Danone pledged to extend the ratio of recycled plastic it makes use of to make its bottles to 50 per cent by 2025. How shut is the corporate to attaining this aim?
All Danone-Aqua bottles are 100 per cent recyclable and are at the moment fabricated from as much as 25 per cent recycled PET (rPET). We’ve got dedicated to eliminating pointless single-use plastics resembling plastic seals and growing the proportion of recycled plastic in our bottles to 50 per cent [by 2025] as per plan.
Nonetheless, we all know that voluntary motion by particular person firms is just not sufficient and may solely be one a part of the answer. We’ve got noticed systemic boundaries that have to be overcome to attain a round economic system, together with underdeveloped assortment and recycling infrastructure, underdeveloped re-use infrastructure, and a shortage of recycled materials that’s slowing down our efforts.
A Sungai Watch river barrier in Indonesia. One-quarter of all PET bottles thrown into Indonesian rivers are Aqua-branded. Picture: Sungai Watch
Danone has additionally pledged to take away extra plastic from the atmosphere than it makes use of by 2025. How is that this dedication going? In line with a recycler in Indonesia, Aqua is taking a look at choices to help waste assortment infrastructure, “however at a really restricted capability in comparison with what the corporate produces”.
We’re working with stakeholders to construct an inclusive recycling ecosystem and strengthen waste assortment infrastructure in Indonesia. In partnership with Veolia Companies Indonesia and Namasindo Plas, we help six recycling centres in South Tangerang, Bali, Bandung, and Lombok, 10 plastic assortment centres, and 20 centres for sorting, separating, grouping, and utilizing plastic waste in Indonesia.
We additionally help a community of neighborhood waste banks, and work with nearly 8,000 waste collectors throughout Indonesia. On account of these efforts, we will now acquire as much as 22,000 tonnes of plastic waste yearly. We’re assured of attaining our goal to get better extra plastics than we use in 2025.
We acknowledge that that is just the start of our journey, and we have to enhance our efforts to enhance assortment. Nonetheless, we consider that our progress is critical, significantly in comparison with different firms.
How is Danone concerned with the event of Indonesia’s Prolonged Producer Accountability (EPR) laws? How does the corporate consider EPR would work greatest in Indonesia to scale back plastic air pollution?
Danone Indonesia is the founding member of PRAISE [short for Packaging and Recycling Association for Indonesia’s Sustainable Environment, it is an organisation set up in 2020 to ramp up recycling and plastic reduction efforts in Indonesia] along with Coca-Cola Indonesia, Indofood Sukses Makmur, Nestle Indonesia, Tetra Pak Indonesia, and the Unilever Indonesia Basis. PRAISE goals to create a collaborative waste administration system mannequin, or what we name Prolonged Stakeholders Accountability, or ESR.
Along with PRAISE, the Indonesia Packaging Restoration Group [IPRO, a non-profit linked to PRAISE set up in 2020] goals to extend the gathering of used packaging. IPRO is predicted to put the foundations for a structured EPR scheme in Indonesia.
Danone helps a legally binding treaty that covers the total lifecycle of plastics, from manufacturing to disposal. What in Danone’s view is vital to creating the plastic treaty work?
The UN Treaty on Plastics is a historic alternative to handle systemic boundaries to plastics circularity, together with these linked to assortment methods, re-use infrastructure and the supply of recycled materials.
We consider the treaty has the potential to align nationwide insurance policies and actions in direction of a standard world technique for tackling plastic air pollution. We name on governments to develop an bold treaty that gives the suitable worldwide coverage framework and creates enabling circumstances for the mandatory investments in infrastructure, innovation, and abilities.
Which means international locations should agree on a standard technique to scale back the reliance on virgin plastic, undertake harmonised requirements for product design and recycling methods, and guarantee sufficient financing for the transition to a round economic system.
The treaty should embody supporting mechanisms for its efficient implementation, permitting for the variation of options that go well with native circumstances. With out such alignment, the treaty dangers being undermined by inconsistent insurance policies and practices.
What’s Danone’s place on a world tax on plastic to scale back air pollution?
We consider that implementing sound EPR coverage has higher potential to scale back packaging waste and plastic air pollution than a plastic excise tax. In contrast to funds collected from a plastic excise tax, EPR charges are ring-fenced for waste administration and recycling. Optimum EPR will apply to all firms that put packaging in the marketplace, making a stage taking part in subject for firms and growing the overall contributed funds.
This interview has been edited for readability and brevity
