Unilever has announced ambitious new commitments to reduce its plastic waste and help create a circular economy for plastics.
Unilever has confirmed that by 2025 it will halve its use of virgin plastic, by reducing its absolute use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 tonnes and accelerating its use of recycled plastic, as well as helping collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells.
The commitment makes Unilever the first major global consumer goods company to commit to an absolute plastics reduction across its portfolio.
It is already on track to achieve its existing commitments to ensure all of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025, and to use at least 25 per cent recycled plastic in its packaging, also by 2025.
Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever, said: “Plastic has its place, but that place is not in the environment. We can only eliminate plastic waste by acting fast and taking radical action at all points in the plastic cycle.”
“Our starting point has to be design, reducing the amount of plastic we use, and then making sure that what we do increasingly comes from recycled sources. We are also committed to ensuring all our plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable.”
“This demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to our packaging and products. It requires us to introduce new and innovate packaging materials and scale up new business models, like reuse and refill formats, at an unprecedented speed and intensity.”
“Our vision is a world in which everyone works together to ensure that plastic stays in the economy and out of the environment. Our plastic is our responsibility and so we are committed to collecting back more than we sell, as part of our drive towards a circular economy.”
“This is a daunting but exciting task which will help drive global demand for recycled plastic.”
Ellen MacArthur, Founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said: “This announcement by Unilever is a significant step in creating a circular economy for plastic. By eliminating unnecessary packaging through innovations such as refill, reuse, and concentrates, while increasing its use of recycled plastic, Unilever is demonstrating how businesses can move away from virgin plastics.”
“We urge others to follow Unilever’s lead, so collectively we can eliminate the plastic we don’t need, innovate, so what we do need is circulated, and ultimately build an economic system where plastic packaging never becomes waste.”