Nestlé further supports the government’s environmental campaigns by implementing programs designed to create awareness among the public on the importance of environmental protection and preservation. These programs include the production of brochures and audio-visual presentations on proper waste management in the home and the installation of public service billboards bearing environmental messages.
Through its company-wide Solid Waste Management Program, Nestlé hopes to reduce waste not only in the factories and in the offices, but in the homes of employees as well. The program seeks to make sound solid waste management a way of life in Nestlé. Aside from the top to bottom training programs on the importance of and techniques used for solid waste management, the Company also practices what it preaches via waste segregation, recycling, and composting.
In all Nestlé work sites, trash bins are color-coded and labeled for systematic waste segregation. Reusable packaging materials are also segregated and collected systematically in the factories. For instance, instead of disposing corrugated carton packaging materials as wastes, the Aurora Factory collects and returns them to the suppliers for reuse.
Almost all factories operate a compost facility where biodegradable wastes are processed into compost. The compost is used as soil conditioner for their eco-gardens.
The Cagayan de Oro Factory, together with community associations, successfully launched its Solid Waste Management Pilot Program in Purok 11, section of the Tablon community where the factory operates. The program, designed to establish a proper garbage segregation and disposal system, took off with the conduct of a Solid Waste Management (SWM) Orientation for the community residents and local government officials, followed by a community clean-up drive. The Green Haven Solid Waste Management Association, composed of 75 households, was formed to implement a garbage disposal system, create a communal eco-garden and eco-center, and sell recyclable materials from the segregated household wastes. A Learning Center for SWM was established in the community to further disseminate SWM practices. Today, the community has a working garbage disposal system where households effectively segregate wastes. Apart from producing its own organic fertilizers from the biodegradable wastes, the community now enjoys a tidy and orderly environment, with clean roads and well-maintained canals, free from pests. Neighboring communities now look up to Purok 11 as a role model for SWM practices.