What Unilever says about plastics
https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/reducing-environmental-impact/waste-and-packaging/rethinking-plastic-packaging/
Not perfect, but...
By 2025, they will:
- Halve the amount of virgin plastic we use in our packaging and an absolute reduction of more than 100,000 tonnes in plastic use
- Help collect and process more plastic packaging than we sell
- Ensure that 100% of our plastic packaging is designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable
- Increase the use of post-consumer recycled plastic material in our packaging to at least 25%.
This includes targets to reduce the weight of our packaging by one-third by the end of 2020 and halve the waste associated with the disposal of our products by the end of 2020. Since 2010, our waste impact per consumer use has reduced by 32%.
How our plastic commitments are driving change – an overview
1. Reduce our virgin plastic packaging by 50% by 2025, with one-third coming from an absolute plastic reduction
For example, our Seventh Generation brand is eliminating virgin petroleum (new plastic made from oil) and virgin fibre (virgin wood pulp) from its packs by using 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. Hellmann’s has switched to 100% PCR plastic bottles and jars in the US and Canada, cutting our virgin plastic use each year by 13,000 tonnes and 1,000 tonnes respectively. And our Dove brand launched several long-term initiatives in 2019, which will cut more than 20,500 tonnes of virgin plastic from its portfolio each year.
2. Help collect and process more plastic packaging than we sell by 2025
We'll help collect and process around 600,000 tonnes of material annually by 2025. We're making direct investments and partnerships in waste collection and processing, building capacity by buying recycled plastics, and through participating in extended producer responsibility schemes in which we directly pay for the collection of our packaging. For example, our Unilever Indonesia Foundation has already helped communities in 18 cities to develop systems where they can collect and sell inorganic waste. Since 2012, the waste banks have collected a total of 17,893 tonnes of packaging waste, worth 23.44 billion IDR.
3. Ensure that 100% of our plastic packaging is designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable
This is a key part of embedding circular thinking – and we're making progress. In Chile, for example, we have moved from using a non-recyclable folding carton across three detergent brands – Omo, Drive and Rinso – to a 100% polyethylene (HDPE) bag which is recyclable, saving 1,634 tonnes a year. And in South Africa, all bottles of our Sunlight dishwashing liquid are recyclable, but in 2019 the 750 ml and 400 ml packs became the first to be made using 100% recycled plastic.
4. Increase the use of post-consumer recycled plastic content in our packaging to at least 25%
In 2019, we estimate that we used around 35,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in our packaging, such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in our plastic bottles. We expect our use of PCR materials to accelerate rapidly over the next few years as the design processes begin to deliver at scale.
We've taken some big steps forward. For example, in 2019, Dove switched to new 100% recycled plastic bottles – where technically feasible – in North America and Europe. Our Bango sweet soy sauce brand in Indonesia began to switch to 100% recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. This builds on our work in 2018, when we launched our REN Clean Skincare packaging with 100% recycled PET (rPET) bottles, working with TerraCycle, a US recycling company, to create the bottles from 80% recycled plastic bottles and 20% reclaimed ocean plastic.
