In honor of World Oceans Day on June 8, more than 5,000 Nestlé employees and their families participated in cleanups in 66 locations worldwide to remove plastic waste from local water bodies.

The hundreds of employees’ children at the cleanups also participated in educational programs on the environment and wildlife conservation, as well as learning more about recycling.

Nestlé recognizes plastic waste as one of the world’s most pressing issues. Through clean up initiatives and other activities, the company aims to play an active role in changing behavior and raising public awareness about reducing plastic waste and recycling more, as part of Nestlé’s broader vision to achieve a waste-free future.

The company’s actions toward this goal include:

• phasing out all plastics that are non-recyclable or hard to recycle for all our products worldwide by 2025
• creating the Nestlé Institute for Packaging Sciences to develop sustainable packaging materials and collaborate with industry partners to scale-up research and innovation
• partnering with Project STOP, a frontline initiative aimed at addressing the leakage of plastic into the ocean, through partnerships with cities and governments in Southeast Asia

“While we are committed to pursuing recycling options where feasible, we know that 100% recyclability is not enough to successfully tackle the plastics waste problem,” the company’s website reads. “We need to push the boundaries and do more.”