Danone-AQUA announces pioneering commitments to address plastic waste, and invites all Indonesians to join the #BijakBerplastik movement.

  • Danone-AQUA commits to recover more plastic than we use from the Indonesian environment, in equivalent volume, by 2025

  • Danone-AQUA commits to lead a nationwide campaign of recycling education, and to activate consumer awareness recycling programs in 20 major cities by 2020.

  • Danone-AQUA commits to making all plastic packaging 100% recyclable, and to increase the proportion of recycled plastic in our bottles to 50%, by 2025.

Jakarta, 5 June 2018. – To mark World Environment Day for Indonesia, Danone-AQUA announces three pioneering commitments to address the problem of plastic waste. Noting the ambitious target set by our nation, to reduce plastic waste going to the ocean by 70% by 2025, Danone-AQUA believes that it is urgent to begin concrete actions and programs to foster a new culture of recycling and environmental responsibility in Indonesia. We intend to work with partners and with our consumers towards that goal, in a spirit of collaboration and active participation, through a new movement, #BijakBerplastik. (Be Plastic Wise)

Plastic packaging has become part of our national life. Every day, Danone-AQUA brings healthy hydration to millions of Indonesians using bottles, cups and refillable jugs of plastic. But packaging also has unwanted consequences. It uses valuable resources and can generate waste when not recycled. The plastic leaking into our waterways and ultimately our ocean poses a considerable challenge, that will require the collaboration of many stakeholders in our society, to be effectively addressed.

As an iconic heritage brand of Indonesia and Indonesians, Danone-AQUA has a special responsibility to act, as well as the opportunity to drive change at scale, by engaging our millions of consumers. The AQUA brand has been a pioneer in the industry since 1993, when it funded its first recycling program with local NGO Dan Mitra Lingkunan for plastic bottles. Since those days, says President Director PT Tirta Investama (Danone-AQUA), Corine Tap, many successful programs and partnerships have been forged to collect and manage plastic waste. “Today Danone-AQUA delivers more than 2/3 of our water in returnable, reusable jugs. More than half of our PET bottles are already being collected and recycled into new bottles or other materials, like textiles. But we have decided the time is right to invest further and to do more. And on top of our own commitments, we want to start new movement #BijakBerplastik to engage our fellow Indonesians in contributing to a new culture of recycling and environmental awareness and engagement”.

Danone-AQUA was recently certified as a B-Corp, and is the largest business in Indonesia to earn this international distinction, which recognizes the company’s proud record of social responsibility and community engagement. Danone-AQUA’s sustainable business model is fully aligned with the global goals of our parent company Danone, under the signature ‘One Planet One Health’; and we support Danone’s ongoing partnership with the Ellen MacArthur foundation and many other stakeholders, to create a clear global roadmap towards a circular economy. These have all inspired the pioneering commitments that Danone-AQUA makes today.

Increase Plastic Waste Collection

Danone-AQUA commits to recover more plastic from the environment than we use by 2025, by expanding our successful social business programs for collecting and recycling waste, and by supporting pioneering technologies to recover more waste from nature.

Since 2010, Danone Ecosysteme with Danone-AQUA has supported social businesses devoted to Inclusive Plastic Collection in Indonesia. Working with waste picker communities, we now collect 12000 tons year for recycling, through six collection centres. We will expand our support for these socially inclusive initiatives to turn packaging waste into a resource, scaling up with additional 10 plastic collection centres, and 10 community waste management facilities.

As well, with its parent company, Danone-AQUA is participating in a research mission with The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit start up that has developed scalable advanced technologies to help rid the oceans of plastic. All these efforts combined should recover more plastic packaging from nature, and keep it as a valuable resource recycled into the economy.

Chairwoman of the Indonesia Plastic Recycling Association (ADUPI), Christine Halim, has welcomed this commitment. “ADUPI supports Danone-AQUA’s initiative to collaborate for plastic waste collection and work with the recycling industry. This is real action to encourage the development of a circular economy, while contributing to solve environmental problems in Indonesia.”

Support Plastic Waste Education

Danone-AQUA commits to lead a nationwide campaign of recycling education in schools, public domain and to collaborate with government and retailers to pilot and activate consumer recycling culture in major cities.

Danone-AQUA understands that the low level of public awareness on how to treat plastic waste is a barrier to building a recycling culture. Our educational work with Ayo Minum Air (AMIR) and many other partners in the country’s primary schools has convinced us of the value of teaching sustainable recycling to the youngest Indonesians, to change habits for a lifetime. We plan to expand our own school

partnership programs to reach millions more children, and we will advocate to have the topic added to the National Curriculum.
In addition to bringing the #BijakBerplastik movement to children in schools, Danone-AQUA will be working with VICE impact to lead educational campaigns targeting our millions of consumers. Earlier this month, to encourage new habits of plastic waste collection and segregation, Danone-AQUA together with Alfamart, Telkomsel and SMASH launched an innovation called Smart Drop Box for shoppers to recycle their bottles. A target has been set to scale up special drop-boxes for plastic bottles, to reach up to 100 million consumers by 2025.

“We are delighted to partner on a sustainable collaboration with Danone-AQUA via the SMART DROPBOX program. We want to encourage and educate consumers to be more creative in collecting and recycling their plastic waste into something of better value”, said GM Corporate Communication of PT Sumbar Alfaria Trijaya Tbk (Alfamart), Ivan Hermawan

Accelerate Plastic Bottle Innovation

Danone-AQUA commits to make major steps towards circularity of the plastics we use. We plan to make all our packaging 100% recyclable by 2025, as well as to increase the proportion of recycled plastic in our bottles to 50% by 2025.

“We now have the technologies to design better and more sustainable packaging, using the circular supply chain of the plastics recycling industry”, said VP for Research and Innovation, Rosalina Privita. “With partners like Veolia bringing their experience and skills to Indonesia, we can re-process more plastic in more efficient ways, and at a much great scale than before. We are ready to create a new world for innovation and for the circularity of the plastics we use.”

At Danone-AQUA, we know we cannot make the change alone. We are proud to work with many existing partners and associations, including H&M, the Packaging Recycling Alliance for Indonesia Sustainable Environment (PRAISE), ADUPI, as well as universities and NGOs, and our most strategic partner, the Indonesian government. We are delighted by our government’s recently expressed resolve to develop a national action plan led by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs for marine waste control. But for #BijakBerplastik to become a reality for Indonesia, we call for collaboration across industries and beyond, to achieve a sustainable, large-scale change in plastic usage and waste management.

As the largest archipelagic state with the longest coastline in the world, Indonesia is endowed with great biodiversity, rich natural resources as well as strategic and economic value that have created many blessings for our country. To protect these resources for Indonesians today and in the future, all stakeholders need to come together. Danone-AQUA stands ready to play its part, as it always has, to contribute to the health and the bright future of Indonesia.