Unilever Announces Commitment on Plastic Packaging Use

Unilever Announces Plastic Packaging Commitment According to a statement from Unilever, the company commits to halving primary plastic use by 2025 by reducing net plastic packaging consumption by more than 100,000 tonnes and accelerating the use of recycled plastic, as well as helping to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells. With this commitment, Unilever became the first major global consumer goods company to commit to net plastic reduction across all its products. Unilever's commitment is expected to help the company collect and process approximately 600,000 tonnes of plastic in one year by 2025. Through Less Plastic solutions, Unilever is exploring new ways to package and present its products, including concentrated products such as the new Cif Eco-refill pack that eliminates 75 percent of plastic, and establishing refill stations for shampoo and laundry detergent in shops and universities in Southeast Asia through mobile vending machines. Better Plastic solutions have opened the way for pioneering innovations including the ability to recycle black plastics thanks to a new detectable pigment used by Axe (Lynx) and TRESemmé that is now detected and separated by optical scanners at recycling facilities, and the Lipton festival bottle made from 100 percent recycled plastic and collected through a deposit programme. In Turkey, Knorr dried soups are produced in Unilever's first recyclable soup packaging globally. As part of a No Plastic approach, Unilever has brought numerous innovations to the market, including solid shampoos, refillable toothpaste tablets, cardboard deodorant boxes and bamboo toothbrushes.

Unilever Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope: 'Our plastic is our responsibility, and we will collect back more than we sell.'

'Our vision is to create a world where everyone works together to keep plastic permanently in the economy by preventing its impact on the environment. Our plastic is our responsibility. Therefore, as part of our efforts to move towards a circular economy, we commit to collecting back more than we sell. However, we can only reach this goal if we act quickly and take radical action at every point in the plastic cycle. Our starting point should be design, so we can reduce the amount of plastic we use and then increasingly use plastics derived from recycled sources. We are also determined to make all our plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable. To do this, we will fundamentally rethink our approach to packaging and products. We need to scale new business models, such as reusable and refillable product formats, which enable us to use new and innovative packaging materials, at a unique speed and intensity.'  

Ellen MacArthur Foundation Founder Ellen MacArthur made the following comments on the subject:

'Today's announcement by Unilever represents an important step in creating a circular economy for plastic. Unilever is demonstrating how businesses can eliminate unnecessary packaging through innovations such as reusable, refillable packs and concentrated products, increase their use of recycled plastic, and move away from virgin plastics. We call on other companies to follow this approach, so that together we can eliminate plastic we don't need and innovate, meet our needs through a circular structure, and ultimately build an economic system where plastic packaging can never become waste.'   Source