NielsenIQ Philippines commitment to sustainability  

Partners with PARMS on the Zero Waste to Nature (ZWTN): Ambisyon 2030 Packaging Strategy and Roadmap 2021

Consumers are increasingly becoming conscious about their shopping habits, and businesses globally are gearing up to cater to the new conscious consumer. In continuing with NielsenIQ’s commitment to sustainability, and its partnership with the industry, NielsenIQ Philippines worked closely with the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability (PARMS) and recently released the Zero Waste to Nature Ambisyon 2030 (ZWTN 2030) Packaging Strategy and Roadmap (September 2021). ZWTN 2030 is a commitment by global and local manufacturers in the Philippines, along with their packaging suppliers or converters, recovery partners and recyclers, to find ways to reduce and collect waste, supporting sustainable packaging commitments of leading brands in the country.

The initiative provides strategies that aim to drive a circular economy in the Philippines through a shift to recyclable packaging, creating finance for recovery and diversion of waste, and enabling investment in recycling and waste processing. These are accompanied with clear targets to be implemented in the immediate, mid-term, and long-term horizons to deliver on the ZWTN 2030 commitment.

The focus was on understanding the impact of material and nature of packaging types across diverse FMCG products, keeping in mind the recycling and waste technologies that can absorb them.

The PARMS-FMCG data submissions were used with NielsenIQ’s country-wide retail sales data to estimate total plastic packaging released into the market by the entire FMCG industry in the Philippines in 2019, covering more than 80% of the market. Consumer packaged goods across 55 categories, with 70,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) that comprise the packaging footprint were mapped for the study. NielsenIQ mapped each SKU to 6 flexible plastics such as bags, sachets or pouches in laminated structures, and 3 rigid plastics categories like bottles.

The categories were then coded into packaging type to enable clear waste recycling and recovery strategies based on NielsenIQ’s consumer packaged goods industry estimates down to the packaging type.

The study found that generation of Rigids plastic is 52% , and flexible plastic generation is at 48%. Key assumptions were determined through extensive industry interviews, and market and policy analysis using conservative and realistic estimates.

Based on the study, PARMS-FMCG members already have targets and timelines to voluntarily shift their packaging where technically and commercially feasible. Based on this timeline, the 2019 LDV (Low Diversion Value or hard to recycle plastics) share of 42% can be reduced to 31% by 2026, and further to 21% by 2030. Continued research and packaging innovation have the potential to accelerate these developments.

We would like to thank Crispian Lao, PARMS members (Coca Cola, Colgate, Monde Nissin, Mondelēz International, Nestle, PCPPI, Unilever, URC, P&G, PT Mayora, Liwayway) and other collaborators for choosing NielsenIQ, as their data provider.

We are proud to continue our commitment and contribution towards building a sustainable future for the communities we serve. #dataforgood