Nestlé calls for rethink on burning plastic waste

Nestlé’s head of packaging for UK and Ireland, David Wiggins, believes that further lifecycle assessments are needed in order to fully identify the best use of mixed post-consumer plastics.

"As a packaging scientist, when I look at a pile of mixed plastics waste I see a shed load of calories," he told attendees at the Resource Recovery Forum's summer conference. Wiggins said that recycling this material used more energy than could be generated by incineration.

"I'm aware that some people in this room would say 'over my dead body' when it comes to burning plastics, but shouldn’t we be getting that energy back?”

Although 90% of his company’s packaging can be easily recycled he said that the remaining 10% – comprising film laminates and food pouches – would be better handled in an energy-from-waste swap.

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