Peter has recently also been elected as the new President of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe, which is the Brussels-based association that represents the non-alcoholic drinks industry in Europe. UNESDA members (10 companies and 25 national associations) are involved in the production and/or distribution of a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages including still and carbonated drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, iced teas, flavoured waters, and sports drinks.
To mark the beginning of Peter Harding’s tenure as President of UNESDA, we caught up with him to share his thoughts and vision for the future.
Congratulations on your new role as President of UNESDA. Can you share your vision and strategic priorities for your two-year tenure in leading the association? And what are your main goals and priorities for your term in office?
My vision for the sector is built upon a fundamental principle, which is active engagement. Our sector will continue to build trust with EU stakeholders and demonstrate that we are a solution provider and are here to work together to find the best path forward. Our voice does matter as we are a key contributor to the European economy, supporting over 1.7 million jobs, both directly and throughout our supply chain, and our value chain is estimated to worth €185 billion annually.
We will remain laser-focused on our existing key priorities: we aim to deliver on our circularity commitments and we also aim to fulfill the commitments we have made on sugar reduction, marketing and advertising, and regarding our actions in EU schools. At the same time, there is increasing interest from stakeholders to receive UNESDA’s views on other topics of importance to society. We are currently reflecting on how we can best respond to those expectations.
Sustainability is a key concern for many industries, including soft drinks. How do you envisage the industry's role in promoting sustainable practices, such as reducing plastic waste and carbon emissions?
As a sector, sustainability has been at the heart of our business since many years. We were at the forefront of developing Deposit and Return Systems (DRS) for the collection of our beverage containers for recycling more than 20 years ago. This was an extraordinary pioneering step in promoting the circularity of our packaging and the results are telling: DRS are currently in place in 13 European countries where they are helping us achieve collection rates often above 90%.
We remain highly ambitious when it comes to reducing our packaging impact. In 2021, UNESDA launched its Circular Packaging Vision 2030, which illustrates our firm commitment to achieving full circularity of our beverage packaging.
We have continuously been working towards reducing our sector’s carbon footprint and using resources efficiently. Many UNESDA members lead environmental initiatives in the communities they are operating to protect water resources and decarbonise their operations, for example.
The EU is finalizing legislative files such as the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which is significant for the beverage industry. Could you explain why this regulation is important, and how Unesda is ensuring compliance with it?
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is a key piece of legislation for our sector and also for the entire packaging industry value chain and, of course, for all our consumers.
While we support the key objective of the PPWR to reduce the amount of packaging and packaging waste, we consider that MEPs and Member States should make the PPWR more pragmatic and realistic. If the EU wants beverage manufacturers to meet the EU’s circularity ambitions, it needs to create the right enabling conditions in the PPWR. So, our asks to MEPs and Member States are clear:
1) First, it is key to maintain the obligation for Member States to set up Deposit and Return Systems for beverage packaging. This will help us increase the collection and recycling rates of our beverage packaging. When we see proposals to make DRS voluntary, we are obviously concerned. These proposals should be rejected.
2) Second, it is also paramount to create a priority access right to the feedstocks for recycling coming from food packaging. This legal mechanism will provide sectors covered by the EU recycled content targets, like ours, access to sufficient recycled materials to be in a position to meet these targets. A priority access will also enable closed-loop recycling, whenever this makes sense from an environmental and technical perspective.
3) Third, recycling, reuse and refill should be considered as complementary solutions. The PPWR should ensure reusable packaging is only introduced where and when it makes the most sense. This can be done by creating well-designed exemptions if certain environmental/waste management criteria are met.
4) The PPWR should also maintain systems enabling refill in the reuse and refill targets to promote innovation in packaging solutions.
5) Finally, talking about reuse, it is very worrying to see proposals to increase the targets without further impact assessment to justify them. We agree that reusable packaging has a role to play in reducing packaging and packaging waste in Europe but it is crucial to assess the environmental and economic implications of scaling up reusable systems across the EU.
Watch the video below to find out more about the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and how the European Parliament can help.
The EU is also focusing on reducing sugar consumption and promoting healthier lifestyles. How will UNESDA work to align industry practices with these health-related goals?
Over the past two decades, we have been helping our consumers manage their sugars’ intake from soft drinks and enabling moderate consumption patterns. I am proud to see how far we have come. Since 2000, our sector has reduced average added sugars in our soft drinks by 28.6% across Europe. No other industry has delivered such a significant sugar reduction. We are now on our way to reduce average added sugars in our soft drinks by a further 10% between 2019 and 2025 in the EU-27 and the UK. However, to help us go further in our sugar reduction efforts, we need policy-makers to support evidence-based dietary recommendations that treat equally ingredients approved as safe for use, such as low- and no-calorie sweeteners.
We have also been playing an important role in promoting balanced diets through the implementation of marketing and advertising practices to children. We know we have a responsibility to help build an environment where consumers learn how to make well-informed food and drink choices from an early age.
With the upcoming European elections, there may be changes in the EU institutions. How do you plan to ensure that the soft drinks industry continues to have a strong and effective voice in shaping EU policies and regulations?
The strength of our sector lies in our ongoing proactivity and constructive engagement with decision-makers, industry partners and even with the NGO community. We will continue to act just like that: as a trustworthy and constructive partner who provides pragmatic solutions that positively impact our planet and the lives of millions of European families.
As we have already shown, we take bold actions and we innovate – and we do that ahead of regulation because we believe that voluntary initiatives are much more effective than regulation.
Peter Harding, President of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe and CEO of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe
