Reducing the effect on the environment

Last update: April 2010

::Packaging is necessary as it guarantees a product’s quality by protecting it, it ensures it can be transported easily and enables information to be provided to customers. Danone has always been concerned about reducing the effect its packaging has on the environment whilst adhering to a 360° view (throughout the production process). The issue now for the group is to redesign its packaging in order to eventually transform waste into a resource.

If Danone produces no packaging itself, the group uses 900,000 tonnes of it per year, which represents a ratio (of packaging weight to product weight) of 4.5g per kg. Packaging represents 15% of Danone’s carbon footprint. More than 50% of packaging materials used by the group are plastic (polyethylene terephtalate [PET], polystyrene, high and low density polyethylene, and polypropylene). PET is used for 100% of water bottles, polyethylene for all opaque bottles (such as the Actimel bottle which is 100% recyclable) and polystyrene for the bulk of yoghurt pots.