Unilever, Maker Of Dove And Lipton, Pledges To Cut Non-Recycled Plastic Use In

Half By 2025

Unilever also pledges to collect and process more used plastic packaging than it sells over the
next six years.

(photo)

This picture shows rubbish from single-use plastics during a protest in Indonesia on July 21,
2019. (Adek Berrt/AFP/Getty Images)

Unilever, one of the largest global consumer goods companies, says it plans to cut its use of
non-recycled “virgin” plastics in half by 2025.

The London-based company — which makes name brands like Dove, Vaseline and Ben & Jerry’s
— also pledges to collect and process more used plastic packaging than it sells over the next six
years.

Richard Slater, chief research and development officer at Unilever, says the company plans to
use as much recycled plastic as possible and make its products fully recyclable — no small task
for a company with over 400 brands sold in more than 190 countries.

The company hopes the switch will help customers make environmentally friendly choices
without drastically changing their buying habits, he says.

“The onus is on us as consumer companies to innovate and come up with solutions that are
great for people,” he says. “It will in some cases need a bit of behavior change and shift. But if
we make it easy for people and bring people along, then I think we can we can affect the
change.”

One product the company has worked to optimize is laundry detergent. The company wants to
shift consumer habits to buying a smaller, more concentrated pack that lasts just as long.

The new formula for Seventh Generation laundry detergent uses half the amount of water and
60% less plastic than before, he says.

Unilever’s plastic initiative will also utilize Loop, a program where the company refills reusable
packaging for consumers. The program is in the pilot stage, he says.

Called “the milkman of the 1950s, but with a 21st-century reboot” on its website, the company
will pick up aluminum deodorant containers or facial cleanser bottles for regular refills, Slater
says.

In theory, using a program like Loop could be even cheaper for consumers because the
company saves money making the product with less water, plastic and transportation.

“My philosophy with all of this is we need to make it really easy and seamless for people,”
Slater says. “I think we’ve got to offer fantastic solutions that are convenient at the right price.”
Recycling plastic isn’t as easy as it may seem — 79% of all plastic has ended up in a landfill or
burned, but not repurposed into a new product.

By attempting to halve its use of nonrecycled plastics, Unilever has created a large demand for
recycled material, he says. This demand helps make the business case for using recycled plastic.

Love Beauty and Planet beauty products, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and Ben & Jerry’s are all
brands manufactured in the U.S. that are moving toward 100% recycled plastic packaging, he
says, which is creating local demand for recycled material.

China used to take the majority of plastic from the U.S. until 2017, but the material wasn’t
recycled when it arrived. Though this change presented a challenging situation, it’s sparked
investment in processing and collecting waste domestically, Slater says.

Unilever plans to form partnerships with waste collectors and processors in the U.S. and
Europe, he says, as well as invest in developing markets like India, Indonesia and Southeast
Asia.

“One of the whole intents of this is to make sure that plastic isn’t seen as a commodity that can
just be thrown away,” Slater says. “It’s plastic waste. That’s the issue here, not plastic. If we can
keep plastic circular, then actually we keep the value in the system and we don’t create that
waste issue in the environment.”
The company’s goal is not to eliminate plastics from its products, he says, but rather keep
plastic waste out of the environment and create a “circle” of reuse across the consumer goods
industry. If companies were to replace plastic with glass or metal, that would come with a
different set of adverse environmental impacts.

Consumer goods companies should collaborate on creating innovative technologies that can
make a difference, Slater says.

Unilever co-invented technology that can repurpose black plastic, a material made from
recycled electronic waste that’s difficult to recycle. The innovation is in the trials, he says.

“We’ll share that with anybody out there,” he says, “to try and change the whole industry
rather than simply changing Unilever.”
Unilever Vows To Reduce Plastic Packaging Use By 2025

Environmentalists praised the company, but also asked that it commit to more robust reforms
to its plastic usage.

(photo)

Unilever products on display at a grocery in Beijing. Source: Zhang Peng

Unilever, the British-Dutch conglomerate that owns Ben & Jerry's, Vaseline, Dove and more,
announced plans Monday to halve its non-recycled plastic packaging by 2025. According to
Unilever's statement, the company currently uses about 700,000 tons of plastic packaging every
year.

In its announcement, Unilever pledged to invest in several alternatives, such as reusable and
refillable materials. Its goal is to reduce plastic use by 100,000 tons. The remaining reduction
will be covered by replacing new plastic with recycled materials.

The company also said it will collect and recycle over 600,000 tons of plastic every year.

"Our vision is a world in which everyone works together to ensure that plastic stays in the
economy and out of the environment," CEO Alan Jope said. "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."

The company plans to set its 2018 plastic use as a baseline. By 2025, Unilever hopes to use no
more than 350,000 tons of non-recycled plastic.
Greenpeace praised the announcement, but called for corporate transparency to ensure
Unilever can be held accountable.

"One [way] is making sure they're doing public disclosure of all the data and progress so they're
not just telling Greenpeace and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, but they're going to be telling
the public what their progress looks like, and being transparent about their plastics use in a
much more open way than they have been historically," Graham Forbes, Global Plastics Project
Leader at Greenpeace, said.

Forbes said Unilever's plans are the most ambitious he's seen from a massive conglomerate. He
also said that Unilever should commit to more.

"While this is a step in the right direction ... Unilever's continued emphasis on collection,
alternative materials, and recycled content will not result in the systemic shift required to solve
the growing plastic pollution problem," Forbes said. "We encourage Unilever to prioritize its
efforts upstream by redesigning single-use plastic and packaging out of its business model."

Greenpeace has been a constant critic of Unilever's environmental impact. In August, the group
accused Unilever of breaking its promise to set up a deforestation monitoring platform.