Google pledges to make its products 100% plastic free and recyclable by 2025

Google has pledged to make its product packaging 100 per cent plastic free and completely recyclable by 2025.

Currently, the back housing (or the back cover) of the recently launched Pixel 5 is made with 100 per cent recycled aluminum, Google said in a statement on Monday.

"We'll continue to keep all shipping of Made by Google hardware to and from our direct customers 100 percent carbon neutral," it said.

Google said it has already made a reduction in plastic use in its packaging since 2016, but it has "a lot of hard work ahead in order to meet this new goal".

"To get us there, we need to uncover alternative, recyclable materials that will still protect our products," said David Bourne, Sustainability Systems Architect.

Last year, Google committed that all of its products would include recycled materials by 2022.

This year, all of the new Pixel and Nest products are designed with recycled material.

The new Nest Audio contains 70 per cent recycled plastic across its enclosure parts including the acoustic fabric, and is covered in the same sustainable fabric that Google first introduced with Nest Mini last year.

"For our latest Nest Thermostat, we made the trim plate from 75 per cent post-consumer recycled plastic".

Google said that it is updating its original goal and committing to using recycled or renewable material in at least 50 percent of all plastic used across all our hardware products by 2025, prioritizing recycled plastic everywhere we can.

"Our new 50 per cent commitment raises the bar well beyond industry standards"., the company said.

“While it’s critical for the materials that go into a product to be sustainable, what happens to the waste material created in a product’s manufacturing process is equally important. Waste is generated at all layers of a supply chain and while we’re working toward understanding each layer of the process and how we can combat waste, to get things started we’re committing to achieving UL 2799 Zero Waste to Landfill certification at all final assembly manufacturing sites by 2022. This certification means that the vast majority of waste from those operations will be recycled,” the company said in a statement.