Namah Chawla
Design Digest

Nestlé introduces paper straws for Milo and Nescafé cold coffee

Ahead of the resumption of the Indian Premier League, Nestlé Milo and Royal Challengers Bangalore bat for a sustainable future.

In a bid to reduce single-use plastic, Nestlé has introduced sustainable paper straws for Milo, its chocolate beverage. This initiative, in partnership with the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), comes ahead of the tournament’s resumption.

Milo beverage packs, with paper straws, are available across India. Nestlé aims to eliminate 30 million plastic straws with this initiative. The company will also make this transition for the packs of Nescafé range of cold coffees. The brand team says that these paper straws are responsibly sourced from renewable sources and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Speaking about this initiative, Mehernosh Malia, director - dairy, Nestlé India, said, “This is one more step towards driving a positive environment impact. We are now working on ways to replace the plastic sleeve with a paper sleeve for the straws on the pack. RCB, our partner, has always promoted environmentally responsible solutions and behaviour. It (RCB) is our natural partner of choice to launch this initiative.”

Mehernosh Malia, Nestlé India
Mehernosh Malia, Nestlé India

It must be noted that Nestlé has already switched to paper straws for Milo in other countries, like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Nigeria. The conglomerate is now taking this step in India to deliver on the company’s global commitment “to make 100 per cent of Nestlé’s packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025 to protect the environment.”

To strengthen its sustainability efforts, Colgate-Palmolive also launched the first-of-its-kind recyclable toothpaste tubes in India in partnership with EPL (formerly known as Essel Propack) last month. It is now manufacturing recyclable tubes for its Colgate Active Salt and Colgate Vedshakti toothpaste portfolio.

Recently, homegrown FMCG major Dabur became the first Indian company to do away with paper cartons for toothpastes. The brand moved towards removing outer paper cartons from its flagship toothpaste brand Dabur Red Paste.

The paper saved by removing the outer cartons will be repurposed to create notebooks for underserved children supported by Child Rights and You (CRY), the leading New Delhi-based NGO.

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