Packaging is vital for business. It helps serve the needs of people around the world. It enables transport and keep products safe and in top condition. It’s also central to the experience of consumers and how Unilever deliver superior brands.
However, the link between packaging and plastic pollution is undeniable. It’s one of the biggest and most visible environmental challenges the firm is grappling with, which is why they have identified plastic as one of four sustainability priorities in Unilever's Growth Action Plan.
The company is doubling down on key issues such as reducing the use of virgin plastic and developing solutions for hard-to-recycle flexible plastic packaging materials, including sachets.
Unilever made significant progress. They have reduced virgin plastic use by 18% against a 2019 baseline. They have increased the use of recycled plastic to 22% of the company's global portfolio. And they have trialled a variety of reuse and refill models around the world.
Unilever's ambition is an end to plastic pollution through reduction, circulation and collaboration.
The CIRCLE Alliance – a new $21 million public–private collaboration co-founded by Unilever, USAID and EY – aims to support entrepreneurs and small businesses across the plastics value chain to scale solutions that reduce plastic use, tackle plastic waste and build thriving circular economies. It has a particular focus on women, who make up the majority of waste collectors working in the informal sector in the global south.
Rebecca Marmot, Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Officer, says: “CIRCLE’s collaborative model of enterprise acceleration – delivered through a mix of grant funding and bespoke business support – will help scale both new and existing solutions for packaging circularity, whether that’s driving collection and recycling, or reuse–refill models.
“Crucially, it will support many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs that offer impactful, market-based solutions but are currently too small to work at the scale we need.”
While CIRCLE’s initial focus is on India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, the plan is to expand to other markets by bringing in new organisations with additional funds to invest.
It builds on the successful approaches developed by impact enterprise accelerator TRANSFORM which is led by Unilever, UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and EY.
