Greenwashing. Have you ever heard of it? It is essentially the false impression that a company or its products are more environmentally sound than they really are. For a company like Nestlé, one of the world’s biggest producers of plastic trash, it has become an essential marketing tool.
The company has been at the center of so many scandals over the years and have repeatedly shown that they have incredibly low ethical standards and little interest in social responsibility. For these reasons, marketing stunts like these, designed to go ‘viral’ and get people talking about them in a positive light, must be taken with a pinch of salt.
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Image credits: Nestlé Japan
Nestlé Japan has gotten all the buzz recently by replacing its glossy plastic wrappers with more environmentally- friendly paper ones. Added to this are bonus origami instructions, so you can create an iconic paper crane design instead of throwing your waste away.
Image credits: Nestle
The world’s biggest food company has vowed to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, after facing increasing pressure from environmental groups.
Greenpeace Plastics Campaigner Kate Melges, during a protest against the company’s annual output of 1.5 million metric tons of single-use plastics, explained that: “Nestlé has created a monster by producing endless quantities of throwaway plastics that persist in our environment for lifetimes.”
Image credits: Nestlé Japan
The campaign states that: “Companies like Nestlé are the ones actually responsible for the plastic monster that is destroying our planet. But they also have the power to slay this monster by reducing the amount of single-use plastic produced.”
Image credits: Nestlé Japan
Nestlé has estimated that the new initiative will help to reduce the brand’s plastic waste by approximately 380 tonnes per year.
Image credits: Nestlé Japan
“So far, their focus has been on so-called solutions that really allow them to continue business as usual: increased recyclability, increased recycled content,” Greenpeace Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar told Forbes. “The real solution is phasing out or significantly reducing the amount of plastic they use in the first place.”
This is a good first step by KitKat Japan, something that is both positive in reducing single-use plastics and fun for the consumer.
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Image credits: Nestlé Japan
Let’s hope Nestlé make good on their pledge and continue to reduce their plastic waste impact, despite their questionable track record of following through on sustainability promises.
Mega-companies like Nestlé need to be coerced into change by consumer behaviour, so shop ethically! Hitting offending companies where it hurts – in their pockets – is where a real difference can be made!
Here’s what people had to say about the KitKat wrappers
Source: boredpanda.com