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The UK Plastics Pact: One Year On

Jo Padwick Business Transformation Manager, Lucozade Ribena Suntory

A year on from signing the UK Plastics Pact, Lucozade Ribena Suntory has made innovative changes to the way it reuses plastic.

05 Jun 2019, 2 min read

Like our consumers, the world around us is constantly changing and we know we must adapt, innovate and take collaborative action to minimise our impact on the environment.

Lucozade Ribena Suntory is founded on the belief that everything stems from nature. So we’re proud to be founding signatories of the UK Plastics Pact and believe that by working together with our consumers, industry and government we can transform the UK’s plastic system.

Since the Pact was launched, we’ve been busy innovating. From replacing 46,000 bottles at running events with seaweed packaging alternatives to converting all our 380ml Lucozade Sport bottles into 100% recycled plastic. We’ve also celebrated ten years of making our Ribena bottles from 100 % recycled plastic. We’ve also rolled out a successful trial of a new light weighted 500ml Ribena bottle which will save 325 tonnes of plastic being produced each year.

Our labelling project aims to reduce the size of our sleeves and increase transparency so that automated sorting machines in UK recycling centres will be able to identify our bottles more easily and ensure that each bottle has the optimum chance of being recycled back into a bottle.

Outside of plastics, our manufacturing site in Coleford is installing a new state-of-the-art bottling line which will use up to 40% less water and energy. We’ve also appointed the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) Association to strengthen Ribena’s Environmental Farm Stewardship Scheme.

Of course, the biggest challenge over the next few years is sourcing a consistent supply of quality, recycled plastic to maintain the 100% recycled plastic content in Ribena bottles and to roll out further use across our other brands. Currently, there is not enough virgin plastic being recycled in the UK to enable all manufacturers to use recycled plastic for their bottles.

So, if we have one piece of advice for consumers, it’s ‘Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!’ When people recycle they create a stream of material that manufacturers can turn back into bottles and drive that circular economy.