EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 26 No. 12/25 www.petpla.net 12 Interview with Nicholas Hodac, General Director, UNESDA There is a target that matters by Heike Fischer When PETplanet is in Brussels, no visit is complete without a stop at UNESDA. Founded in 1958, UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe is a trade association representing the non-alcoholic beverages sector. Its membership includes 12 companies and 27 national associations from across Europe. UNESDA’s members are involved in the production and/or distribution of a wide range of non-alcoholic beverages, including still drinks, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, iced teas, flavoured waters, and sports drinks. I was warmly welcomed by Nicholas Hodac, Director General (left), and Inês Rebelo, Senior Communications Manager (right). Editour Nicholas Hodac has now been with UNESDA for six years. During this time, he has strengthened the association’s focus on environmental sustainability - particularly topics related to packaging. Water has also become a new area of attention, alongside climate - while food safety, and health & nutrition remain top industry priorities. Back in 2019, UNESDA set out a number of aspirations that have been updated for 2024–2029 and presented in a new EU manifesto. The association works closely with EU institutions in defined policy cycles, and a new cycle is underway. With this, UNESDA is calling on the EU for support across its three key pillars: sustainability, health & nutrition, and competitiveness. UNESDA is an alliance of companies and national associations, comprising essentially 12 core companies. “We have grown significantly over the past year because the soft drinks market itself has expanded in terms of the number of players. Traditionally, our members included companies such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Pepsi, Suntory, and Nestlé. New players now include Carlsberg and Royal Unibrew.” Nicholas explained that consumers - especially the younger generation - are drinking less alcohol, which is why breweries are diversifying their portfolios and entering the soft drinks market. Fewer people drink alcohol at lunchtime, and fewer people go to bars, so consumption habits have changed. Non-alcoholic beer and non-alcoholic wine are on the rise. “What’s really fascinating is that we’ve moved from being just a traditional carbonated-drinks category to becoming a total beverage sector, with functional drinks, flavoured waters, and products that respond to new consumer expectations around functionality and mental and physical health. The level of innovation happening in the sector is remarkable.” Nearly every European country has its own soft drinks association, and these national associations are members of UNESDA. “In Brussels, we do not work on our own; we are also members of several other associations such as PETCORE and FoodDrinkEurope. We are also part of platforms, alliances and associations linked to the materials we work with. So, besides PETCORE, we are members of the ‘Close the Glass Loop’ platform in the glass industry, and the ‘Global Beverage Can Circularity Alliance.” Across all these partnerships, the focus is on closing the loop and achieving circularity. Around 70% of packaging in the sector is PET, 20% is metal cans, and the rest is glass. Each material must achieve full circularity. “In the last three or four years, we have seen PET’s market share drop from 70% to 65%, while the share of metal cans has increased, taking over those five per cent. There are two reasons for this: consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, and plastics still suffer from a negative perception. That’s why PETCORE is running its recycletheone.com campaign to show the recyclability potential of PET. The second reason is linked to what I mentioned earlier: consumption habits have changed. There is much more ‘on-the-go’ consumption, and metal cans are the first choice in that context. Ultimately, every material must achieve a circular economy. For us, what matters is that the material is collected, recycled, and reused - that is what we want to achieve.” In 2019, there was intense debate surrounding the SUP Directive, and some countries even suggested reducing or banning plastic packaging altogether. “We saw it as our responsibility to outline a future in which plastic is treated as a valuable resource rather than something that ends up as litter. For many years, we have been strongly supporting the EU recycling industry through our huge investments in recycling and constructive engagement, and our Circular Packaging Vision is just another step forward in doing so. Our Vision was set out in 2021, with the goal of achieving full circularity by 2030. We present this vision to stakeholders and policymakers. We have also defined targets for 2025 and 2030. We began by accelerating our recyclability efforts to ensure that, by the end of 2025, every soft drinks packaging we place on the market will be recyclable. In addition, we have committed to ensuring that 50% of the PET used in our plastic bottles will be recycled PET by the end of 2025. By 2030, we aim to achieve a 90% collection rate for all our packaging - not only plastic bottles, but also glas bottles and aluminium cans - and aim for all our PET bottles to be made from 100% recycled content and/or renewable Sponsors
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