Eliminating Waste

Eliminating waste from our value chain requires coordination across every aspect of the product life cycle, from ideation and creation, to sale, to recycle or take back. It’s a systemic and systematic approach, where every decision minimizes waste. To strengthen our approach, we’re focused on using lighter weight, higher yield materials; increasing pattern efficiency; reducing defects; increasing closed-loop recycling; and working on breakthrough innovations that enable recycling manufacturing scrap materials that typically can’t be efficiently recycled, like leather and blended textiles.

At NIKE, we continuously improve our waste-estimating and -measurement practices to more effectively reduce and recycle waste. In particular, we focus on reducing defects, because defects indicate opportunities to improve design and/or manufacturing. We also require factories to sort, bag, tag, weigh, and carefully store scrap material starting at the production line so the material created from recycled scrap can compete with virgin materials in terms of quality and cost to process.

Packaging has a material impact on our consumers, our business, and our environment. It is the most the most tangible, consumer felt experience of our environmental impact and a critical enabler for our supply chain.

At NIKE, we strive to improve packaging through two simple principles: 1) use less packaging, and 2) use materials better for environment.

Almost 75% of the packaging we use is added at supplier facilities, and the highest volume packaging types are master outer cartons –, the large boxes we ship bulk product into our distribution centers and retail stores –, and shoe boxes, which come in a variety of designs. We are committed to using less by reducing or reusing our packaging.

One way to use less is to light weight the packaging. We are doing this with our master outer cartons for footwear which are shipped from suppliers. Our new design is 22% lighter than the previous version which will reduce waste in our distribution centers and retail stores when these boxes are eventually disposed.

Another way to use less packaging is to reuse it. Infinity Box is a non-corrugate solution for master outer cartons shipped from our distribution centers that can be reused for shipments between distribution centers and NIKE stores. We are piloting this concept in all of our geographies.

Finally, we can use less by optimizing the design and eliminating packaging where possible. In footwear, we’re changing the size and design of shoe boxes to create the best fit and reduce weight and waste. When looking inside the shoe boxes, we have made a conscious effort to remove toe stuffing. Although it is used to maintain the shape of some of our shoes, not all models require it and we can save millions of kilograms of waste when we skip this additional material

In addition to using less packaging, we want to ensure we are always working on using better materials. This starts with the corrugated cardboard, the majority of which is used for the master outer cartons and shoe boxes shipped from our supplier facilities. Today, we are proud to say that our master outer cartons are made from an average of 89% recycled material, and our shoe boxes are made from over 90% recycled material.

As a signatory to The Fashion Pact, NIKE is also continuing work to eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use plastics in our packaging by 2030. Across the globe, we have removed plastic bags from our retail stores. We have made further progress towards this commitment by converting plastic digital mailing envelopes to paper or compostable digital mailing envelopes in all of our geographies.

The largest volume of our single use plastic packaging is our apparel polybags, which are used to protect our apparel products. While we have explored the use of easier to recycle, paper-based alternatives, we have not yet found the right alternative for our supply chain and still view polybags as a necessary packaging item. However, we are committed to using better material and are almost done converting 100% of our polybags to 100% post-industrial recycled content.

While plastic polybags continue to be in use, we encourage our consumers to locate and leverage local plastic recycling collection points to help ensure this material is properly recycled.

Finished product waste is any product that can no longer be sold or used as originally intended, including equipment which consumers no longer use. Throughout our supply chain, there are a variety of reasons that a product falls into this designation. We recognize that often these products can be used in some way and have doubled down on our efforts to give them a second life.

We’re unveiling and piloting new programs that help consumers recycle and refurbish our products. Recycling & Donation (RAD), an evolution of NIKE’s global Reuse-a-Shoe program, accepts footwear and apparel, recycling worn gear into Nike Grind and donating useable gear through community partners. Nike Refurbished extends the life of gently worn, like-new or slightly imperfect NIKE footwear by refurbishing and re-selling the products at select NIKE Factory, Unite and Community stores. In-store repair services, designed to extend the life of gear, are also being piloted.

We have set ambitious recycling targets with a focus on closed-loop recycling. NIKE innovation teams are working with industry experts to identify new and emerging recycling technologies. In collaboration with an ecosystem of global consolidators and recycling centers, we are building a circular supply chain to recover and transform manufacturing scraps into valuable materials and products.

Much of our work builds on the success of Nike Grind, established in 1992. Nike Grind, made from recycled scrap and footwear, is used to make new NIKE product as well as playgrounds, running tracks and other products like phone cases and carpet padding. We invest in research and development and expand our relationships to recycle more materials and increase use of Nike Grind materials.

We’re investing in innovation that enables breakthroughs in recycled and recyclable materials, new machines and methods of make, and new recycling technologies. Our teams are building on what we learned through Space Hippie and finding new ways to create products, including pinnacle performance footwear, with recycled content. Products like the Alpha Fly Next Nature and Mercurial Next Nature are expanding our capabilities and empowering us to scale more sustainable innovations throughout product lines.

Part of eliminating waste is empowering employees and vendors to take action. We use audits to fine tune this effort, with a focus on creating and operating spaces that embody circularity and enable reuse and the total elimination of single-use waste and hard-to-recycle items. Through collaboration with our vendors, we’re creating programs, like the Home Grown program, that reduce food waste and finding channels to reuse or donate furniture, excess construction supplies and other items.