Food and beverage giant Nestlé announced a series of paper packaging innovations across brands including Nescafé and Vital Proteins, aimed at supporting the company’s sustainable packaging goals.

Nestlé’s sustainability goals include a series of targets aimed at addressing the environmental footprint of packaging waste, which can include impacts on water and soil quality, and biodiversity. Packaging is also the second most significant source of carbon emissions at the company. Nestlé’s packaging goals include targets to design 95% of its plastic packaging for recycling, and to reduce the use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025, on a 2018 basis.

According to Gerhard Niederreiter, Head of Nestlé’s Institute of Packaging Sciences, the company first introduced paper-based packaging for some of its confectionery brands, and is now proceeding to product categories with more challenging packaging requirements.

Niederreiter said:

“When developing paper packaging, we consider each product’s sensitivity to external elements such as oxygen, temperature and moisture. Starting with less sensitive products, Nestlé’s paper packaging journey started in confectionery including Smarties and KitKat and is now advancing to product categories such as coffee which require higher barrier protection.”

In the coffee category, Nestlé noted the recent introduction of a high-barrier paper refill pack for Nescafé in the UK, enabling consumers to refill containers at home with a pack that retains freshness and quality, but reduces packaging waste by 97%, and can be recycled in the local paper waste stream.

Nestlé also announced new packaging for the Nescafé Cappuccino range in Europe, featuring a paper-body, instead of the previous plastic can, that is fully recyclable in the paper waste stream across Europe.

Axel Touzet, Head of the Coffee Business Unit for Nestlé, said:

“Coffee is particularly sensitive to oxygen and humidity. This is why redesigning packaging for this product category requires additional efforts to ensure we can safeguard product freshness and quality with science-based and sustainable solutions.”

For its collagen-based products brand Vital Proteins in the U.S., Nestlé has launched new paperboard canisters, which reduces plastic by 90% compared with the previous packaging, and includes a proprietary coverlid that is rigid and tight that the company said enables easy opening and closing, in addition to being leak-prof, spill-proof and durable.

The company added that its global R&D network is working with external partners and suppliers on the development of next generation of high barrier paper packaging solutions across product categories.