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Some may think I sound like a broken record. This is because, for more than a year, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe, the European association representing soft drinks producers, has been insistently reporting a major problem faced by the European food and drink industry: the lack of availability of sufficient qualitative recycled PET for food and drink applications.

by Delphine Close, EU Policy Manager, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe To reduce soft drinks packaging and packaging waste, a wide range of actions can be taken by European producers, consumers and decision-makers. First, producers have the responsibility to avoid the use of unnecessary packaging and to design all packaging in a way that allows its

As we, Europe’s soft drinks sector, celebrate the one-year anniversary of our new and enhanced health and nutrition commitments, this seems a timely moment to take stock of our actions to create a healthier soft drink environment in Europe.

by Delphine Close, EU Policy Manager, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe Last week (20-28 November 2021) was the European week for waste reduction. What better time to reflect on the latest and upcoming developments in circular packaging? Our ambition at UNESDA is very clear, we want to decouple “beverage packaging” from “waste”. The reason is simple:

by Helen Benson, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Director, UNESDA The European Commission’s EU Farm to Fork conference today marks a timely point for all of us who are actively inputting to this groundbreaking strategy to pause and to reflect on what we have achieved so far. After all, it was only about a year and

By Ian Ellington, president of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe The sector is playing its part in creating a healthier and more sustainable food system in Europe but urgent action by all food sectors is required to achieve wider positive health impacts The global food system will face unprecedented health and environmental challenges in the coming

By Nicholas Hodac, director general, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe We are still not doing enough and I am equally responsible. In the EU, an estimated 41.5% of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2018. That’s not bad and we do see a steady increase in recycling rates, but we can do much better. Unfortunately, when

By Ornella Cosomati, EU Public Affairs Manager, PepsiCo & Chair of UNESDA Packaging WG & Tudy Bernier, Senior Policy Manager, UNESDA As we submitted UNESDA’s response to the Commission’s public consultation on reducing packaging waste last month, it got us thinking. This is a huge initiative - wide in scope and with the opportunity to

By Nicholas Hodac, director general, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe The Farm to Fork’s proposal for an EU Code of Conduct for responsible business and marketing practices presents a golden opportunity for Europe to take a global lead in demonstrating the power of collective and collaborative public-private partnerships (PPP).  With a well-designed Code and Monitoring Framework the

By Patricia Fosselard, Secretary General, EFBW and Nicholas Hodac, Director General, UNESDA Europe’s beverage sectors have long led the way in packaging sustainability and circularity. Over the past decades our industries have been actively involved in the setting-up and financing of packaging recovery organisations across the continent, and now PET drinks bottles have the distinction