Nestlé are the world's largest food company, and their waste runs to a matching scale. They are estimated to produce around 5.2 million metric tonnes (nearly 11.5 billion pounds) of waste in 2026, counting the packaging they put on the market and the waste their own factories generate.
Most of that is packaging, about 3.4 million tonnes wrapped around the products they sell. The rest, roughly 1.77 million tonnes, is waste from their factories. Both figures come from Nestlé's own audited reporting, so the total sits on firmer ground than most.
Nestlé sell products in 185 countries, and almost all of it is wrapped. Add the 3.4 million tonnes of packaging they ship to the 1.77 million tonnes their factories throw out, and Nestlé produce an estimated 5.2 million tonnes of waste a year, about 14,000 tonnes a day.
Nestlé's plastic packaging year by year (2021-2026)
Nestlé's total packaging has plateaued at about 3.4 million tonnes, but the plastic within it, the part under the most pressure, has fallen every year. It is also the stream Nestlé report in the most detail.
| Year | Plastic packaging (metric tonnes) | Change on prior year (tonnes) | Change on prior year (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 828,000 | -22,000 | -2.6% |
| 2025 | 850,000 | -23,000 | -2.6% |
| 2024 | 872,900 | -23,700 | -2.6% |
| 2023 | 896,600 | -30,400 | -3.3% |
| 2022 | 927,000 | -28,000 | -2.9% |
| 2021 | 955,000 | baseline | - |
Note: Plastic packaging weight. The 2022 to 2024 figures are Nestlé's own; 2021, 2025 and 2026 are our estimates on the recent trend of about 3% a year. Plastic is roughly a quarter of Nestlé's 3.4 million tonnes of total packaging.
Even as it falls, the scale stays vast: in 2026 Nestlé still put an estimated 828,000 tonnes of plastic packaging on the market, a big reason they stay near the top of the plastic-polluter rankings.
What makes up Nestlé's waste
Plastic is only one slice. Across everything, two streams make up almost all of Nestlé's waste, and they report both for 2024.
| Waste stream | Metric tonnes |
|---|---|
| Packaging placed on the market | 3.4 million |
| Waste from Nestlé factories | 1.77 million |
| Total | 5.2 million |
Note: Both figures are from Nestlé's audited 2024 reporting. We hold them flat for 2026, as Nestlé have not yet published newer data.
Emissions are a separate matter. Nestlé report around 84 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, almost all of it from farming and their supply chain, but that is carbon dioxide rather than physical waste, so it sits outside this total.
Who are Nestlé?
Nestlé are a Swiss food and drink company, the largest in the world by sales. They began in the 1860s in Switzerland with Henri Nestlé's infant food, and grew by merger and acquisition into today's giant.
That reach is the main reason their packaging footprint is so large. A few figures show the scale.
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Sales: about 91 billion Swiss francs in 2024, roughly 104 billion dollars.
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Brands: more than 2,000, 29 of them each selling over a billion francs a year.
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Factories: 335 worldwide.
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Countries: products are sold in 185 countries.
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Staff: around 271,000 people.
The brands behind Nestlé
Nestlé own more than 2,000 brands, and many are household names. That spread, across coffee, sweets, water, pet food and baby food, is a big part of why their packaging footprint is so large. Below is a preview of some of their best-known brands.
| Category | Well-known Nestlé brands |
|---|---|
| Coffee | Nescafé, Nespresso |
| Chocolate and sweets | KitKat, Smarties, Aero |
| Water | Nestlé Pure Life, Perrier, San Pellegrino |
| Cooking | Maggi |
| Pet food | Purina, Felix |
| Baby food | Gerber, Cerelac |
| Drinks and dairy | Nesquik, Coffee-Mate |
Note: A selection of Nestlé's best-known brands. They report more than 2,000 in total.
Why Nestlé make so much waste
The size of the number comes down to how Nestlé sell, not one single cause. Four things drive it.
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Sheer scale. As the world's largest food company, selling in 185 countries, even a few grams of packaging per product add up to millions of tonnes across a year.
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Almost everything is wrapped. Coffee, chocolate, water, pet food and ready meals nearly all come in single-use packaging that is thrown away after one use.
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Hard-to-recycle formats. Coffee pods, sachets and flexible wrappers mix materials in ways that are difficult to recycle, so much of it ends up as waste rather than new material.
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Global reach. A large share of Nestlé's sales are in markets where collection and recycling systems are patchy, so packaging is more likely to become litter or landfill.
Spread across a year, the 5.2 million tonne estimate works out at roughly 14,000 tonnes of waste every day.
The plastic promises Nestlé have missed
Nestlé set a round of plastic goals for 2025, and their latest figures fall short of each one.
| Goal | Where Nestlé stand |
|---|---|
| Cut virgin plastic by about a third | down 21.3% |
| 100% recyclable or reusable packaging | 87% |
| 95% of plastic designed for recycling | 86.4% |
Note: Goals were set for 2025; figures are Nestlé's audited 2024 results, with the virgin-plastic cut measured against a 2018 baseline.
The progress is real, but the deadlines have slipped. Nestlé have moved their 100% recyclable-or-reusable target back from 2025, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which tracks these pledges, has warned that the wider group of companies who made them will miss their 2025 goals.
One of the world's top plastic polluters
Since 2018, the environmental groups behind the world's largest brand-litter audit have named Nestlé one of the top three plastic polluters on the planet every single year.
| Break Free From Plastic audit | Nestlé's global rank |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2nd |
| 2022 | 3rd |
| 2020 | 3rd |
| 2019 | 2nd |
| 2018 | 3rd |
Note: From the Break Free From Plastic global brand audit, which sorts plastic litter collected in worldwide cleanups by brand. Coca-Cola has ranked first throughout.
The audit counts branded plastic found in cleanups, so it captures litter rather than total tonnage, but the pattern is consistent: Nestlé's packaging turns up among the most-found in the world year after year.
Nestlé point to their rising use of recycled material and packaging designed for recycling, and to the virgin plastic they have already cut. Both things are true at once: Nestlé are making real changes, and they remain one of the largest branded sources of plastic waste on earth.
Frequently asked questions about Nestlé's waste
Below are the questions people most often ask about Nestlé's packaging and waste.
How much waste does Nestlé produce each year?
We estimate Nestlé produce around 5.2 million tonnes of waste in 2026, made up of about 3.4 million tonnes of packaging placed on the market and 1.77 million tonnes of waste from their factories. Both are drawn from Nestlé's own audited 2024 reporting.
How much plastic does Nestlé use?
About 873,000 tonnes of plastic packaging in 2024, down from 927,000 in 2022. That is roughly a quarter of their total packaging by weight, the rest being paper, board, glass and metal.
Is Nestlé a big plastic polluter?
Yes, by the Break Free From Plastic global brand audit. Nestlé have ranked among the top three plastic polluters worldwide every year since 2018, and second in the most recent audit, behind only Coca-Cola.
Did Nestlé meet their plastic targets?
No. By 2024 they had cut virgin plastic 21.3% against a goal of about a third, reached 87% recyclable or reusable packaging against a 100% goal, and 86.4% of plastic designed for recycling against a 95% goal.
Does Nestlé report their food waste?
Not as a single figure. Nestlé say they are still formalising how they measure food waste. The organic "biomass" in their factory waste, about 1.18 million tonnes in 2024, includes food loss, and it already sits inside the factory-waste total.
Are Nestlé's emissions counted in this waste figure?
No. Nestlé's greenhouse-gas emissions, around 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, are reported separately. Emissions are gas, not physical waste, so they are not part of the 5.2 million tonne total.
How do we estimate Nestlé's waste?
We add Nestlé's two disclosed physical-waste streams, packaging placed on the market and waste generated in their factories, both from their audited 2024 reporting, and hold them flat for 2026 as newer figures are not yet published.
Images: Mark Hillary
