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Waste & packaging

Unilever's work on waste & packaging supports

4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

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Waste & packaging

The growing challenge of plastic in the environment means it is more urgent than ever to find solutions to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover ‘post-consumer’ plastic waste.

Plastic has become an integral part of our lives. It protects products and makes them easy to dispense or reseal after use. But with that has emerged the enormous – and growing – problem of plastic waste. It is littering our environment, polluting our seas and killing aquatic life.

The challenge is that so little plastic packaging is currently recycled, recyclable or reusable. The result is a significant economic loss for society and business. It is for these reasons that we have singled out plastic packaging as a principal risk for our business in 2018 in our Annual Report & Accounts. Urgent action is needed on multiple fronts. As a consumer goods company, we’re acutely aware of the causes and consequences of the linear “take-make-dispose” model. And we want to change it.

From a purely business perspective, discarding plastic makes zero sense. Plastic packaging waste represents an $80-$120 billion loss to the global economy every year according to the World Economic Forum. A more circular approach is needed, where we not only use less packaging, but design the packaging we do use so it can be reused, recycled or composted.

In a circular economy, materials are regenerated and constantly flow around a ‘closed loop’ system, rather than being used a few times and then discarded. It means that the value of materials, including plastics, is not lost by being thrown away. A more circular use of materials means lower costs and less waste. It means new sources of value for our customers and consumers, better risk management of raw materials, and improved approaches to the supply chain.

The Waste & Packaging pillar of our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan contributes primarily to two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Responsible Consumption & Production (SDG 12) and Life Below Water (SDG 14). And moving away from this linear model of consumption is key.

On this page

A clear strategy: Less Plastic. Better Plastic. No Plastic.

In 2017, we made a public commitment to address plastic packaging waste. By 2025, all our plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable and at least 25% of it will come from recycled plastic content. To help deliver these commitments we have an internal framework: Less plastic. Better plastic. No plastic.

'Less plastic' is about cutting down how much we use in the first place. Since 2010 we've reduced the weight of our packaging by 18% through lightweighting and design improvements. For example, during 2018 we launched a three litre bottle for our Omo laundry detergent brand in Brazil. With a formula at six times the concentration of the original, it can be diluted in people’s homes. This innovation has reduced the volume of plastic used by 75%.

'Better plastics' is about making our products recyclable and eliminating problematic materials. Specifically, how we get recycled content into our packaging. A number of our brands are incorporating post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in their products. Some of our packaging is now 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), such as our Love Beauty and Planet bottles. Better plastics is also about working with governments and partners to build infrastructure to help keep plastic in the economy and out of the natural environment. Our Community Waste Banks and CreaSolv® Recycling technology pilot plant in Indonesia are at the heart of these efforts.

'No plastics' is about thinking differently – using alternative materials such as aluminium, glass, paper and board where possible and removing plastic where it is not necessary, such as plastic stiffeners from soap bars. We're also looking at reuse, encouraging shoppers to refill or reuse through vending machines. It's early days but we are committed to finding non-plastic packaging solutions.

We're putting significant resource into tackling the issues associated with plastic packaging – often in partnership with others. We’re long-term collaborators with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and their New Plastics Economy initiative.

In October 2018, we joined around 250 packaging producers, brands, retailers, recyclers, governments and NGOs in signing The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, which aims to create ‘a new normal’ for plastic packaging. But more collaborations are needed if we are to move towards a circular economy. No business can do this alone. It makes business sense to keep plastic in the economy and is imperative for the planet.

In October 2019, we complimented our 2017 commitments with two new goals:

The first is to reduce our use of virgin plastic in our packaging by 50% by 2025. We will deliver this by eliminating over 100,000 tonnes of plastic from our packaging by accelerating multiple-use packs, reusable and refillable formats and new business models, and ‘no plastic’ solutions. The rest we will deliver by increasing our use of recycled material, helping keep plastic in the economy and out of the environment.

The second is to help collect and process more plastic packaging than we sell by 2025. We will do this by investing and partnering to improve waste management infrastructure in many of the countries in which we operate.

Our commitment

We aim to halve the waste associated with the disposal of our products by 2020. Our environmental targets are expressed on a 'per consumer use' basis. This means a single use, portion or serving of a product. We have taken a lifecycle approach with a baseline of 2010.

Progress to date

We have reduced our waste footprint, versus our 2010 baseline, by 31%† per consumer use in 2018.*∞

In addition, we have made a significant reduction in reducing waste from manufacturing. In 2018 we achieved a reduction in total waste sent for disposal of 97%† per tonne of production since 2008.

*Our environmental targets are expressed against a baseline of 2010 and on a 'per consumer use' basis. This means a single use, portion or serving of a product. We are reporting against our five water-using sub-categories (Laundry, Hair Care, Oral Care, Skin Cleansing and Household Care) in seven water-scarce countries: China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and the US.

∞The spreads business was sold in mid-2018 and is excluded from the performance measure (including the baseline) to ensure alignment with the existing business structure.

†Independently assured by PwC

Future challenges

No business can create a circular economy in isolation – nor can we simply 'join' a wider circular economy until it actually exists. There are many elements which are outside our control, such as selective collection of packaging waste, little or no infrastructure and limited investment in the waste industry.

We are working with a range of stakeholders and industry partners to advance our efforts in making our products recyclable and eliminating problematic materials. For instance, we are working with WRAP, Recoup and a number of waste management companies in the UK to develop detectable black colourants which allow the environmental benefits of recycling black plastics to be fully realised. We’ve also partnered with Ioniqa and Indorama Ventures to pioneer a new technology which converts PET (polyethylene terephthalate) waste back into virgin grade material for use in food packaging.

We believe that transparency and disclosure of our plastic packaging footprint is key to unlocking some of the barriers we face. We will publish the full ‘palette’ of plastic materials we use in our packaging by 2020. We hope this will be a catalyst to improve transparency across the industry, drive convergence on certain materials and highlight the challenges we collectively need to overcome. We recognise the importance of recycling but we know it’s not the only solution.

We are determined to reduce our use of single-use plastics by investing in alternative models of consumption which harness refills and reusable packaging (Better Plastic) as well as alternative packaging solutions that do not use plastic at all (No Plastic).

To move to a circular economy approach we will need to continue to rethink the way we design our products and packaging. This means carefully considering the systems in which our products flow and working with other businesses and urge governments to implement policies and frameworks that facilitate this fundamental shift.

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Taking action

We minimise waste by reducing, reusing and recycling our own waste and encouraging consumers to do the same. We want to move towards a more circular economy, enabling more packaging to either remain in loops or have the best possible opportunity to be recycled.
Unilever recycling aerosols

Waste & packaging

Our waste footprint

recycling plastics in brazil

Waste & packaging

Rethinking plastic packaging – towards a circular economy

R&D in one of our factories in China

Waste & packaging

Going beyond zero waste to landfill

Inspiring consumers to reduce food waste

Waste & packaging

Reducing food waste

Waste & packaging
Our commitment

Halve the waste associated with the disposal of our products by 2020.*

Our performance

In 2018, our waste impact has reduced by 31%† since 2010.*∞

Our perspective

Our total waste footprint per consumer use has reduced by 31%† since 2010. We have made good progress in areas where we have direct control such as reducing waste in our own operations and through light weighting and alternative packaging design. For example, in 2018 we removed over 1,100 tonnes of plastic from skin care product packaging across Vaseline, Dove, Pond's and Simple brands, among others. We also began to step up our innovation to promote re-use and refills, including the trialling of new business models such as Loop™.

In the areas beyond our direct control, progress has been slower, despite active lobbying to drive up collection and recycling infrastructure. We have seen some infrastructure improvements in recycling and recovery which has contributed to our performance. However, improvements have been slower than we expected when we set the target in 2010.

Following a review of our current portfolio and innovation roadmaps as well as consideration of the external context, we do not expect to hit our halving waste target by the end of 2020. However, we will continue to accelerate our efforts on packaging redesign to encourage greater recyclability as well as working with partners to driver system change on recycling and recovery infrastructure, for example through our Community Waste Banks and CreaSolv® Recycling technology pilot plant in Indonesia.

As part of our commitment to use post-consumer recycled plastic in our packaging, we are also driving up the demand for recycled content and so in turn expect to see an increase in both infrastructure and recycling and recovery rates for some of these materials over time.

* Our environmental targets are expressed against a baseline of 2010 and on a 'per consumer use' basis. This means a single use, portion or serving of a product.

∞ The spreads business was sold in mid-2018 and is excluded from the performance measure (including the baseline) to ensure alignment with the existing business structure.

†Independently assured by PwC

  • Achieved 4

  • On-Plan 4

  • Off-Plan 1

  • %

    Of target achieved 3

Key to our performance

  • Achieved

    This is the number of targets we have achieved

  • On-Plan

    This is the number of targets we are on track to achieve

  • Off-Plan

    This is the number of targets we are currently not on track

  • %

    Of target achieved

    This is the percentage of the target we are on track to achieve

Our targets

Please see Independent assurance and our metrics for more details of our assurance programme across the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Reduce waste from manufacturing

  • By 2020 total waste sent for disposal will be at or below 2008 levels despite significantly higher volumes.

Measured against a baseline of 7.91 kg of total waste disposed per tonne of production in 2008.

This represents a reduction of around 40% per tonne of production.

Versus a 1995 baseline, this represents an 80% reduction per tonne of production and a 70% absolute reduction.

We achieved our target in 2012 with 76,000 fewer tonnes of total waste than in 2008, a 51% reduction per tonne of production.

In 2018 we disposed of 146,946 fewer tonnes of total waste than in 2008, a 97%† reduction per tonne of production. 0.20kg† of total waste was sent for disposal per tonne of production. This is an absolute reduction of 7.71 kg of total waste disposed per tonne of production.

Compared to 1995, this represents a 99.2% reduction in absolute terms.

  • By 2015 all manufacturing sites will achieve zero non-hazardous waste to landfill.

We achieved zero non-hazardous waste to landfill across our global factory network by end 2014. In 2018 we sent 0.15% of the non-hazardous waste generated in the year to landfill from 13 of our sites.*

Our Perspective

Although we achieved our waste disposal target in 2012 – eight years ahead of schedule – we have gone further, continuing to drive improvements. In 2018 we disposed of 146,946 fewer tonnes of total waste than in 2008 – a 97%† reduction per tonne of production.

We achieved our target of zero non-hazardous waste to landfill one year early, at the end of 2014. We believe this was a first for a company of our scale in our industry. Our focus since has been on maintaining zero non-hazardous waste to landfill, recognising that this is about an ongoing journey rather than achieving this for a moment in time.

In 2018, 13 sites disposed of a small amount of non-hazardous waste to landfill. We take any lapses very seriously. We are confident our overall achievement is still industry leading and we have robust procedures in place to highlight any issues.

By replicating our zero waste model in other parts of our business, nearly 400 additional non-manufacturing sites have also eliminated non-hazardous waste to landfill.

*We aim to maintain our achievement of zero non-hazardous waste to landfill (ZWL) across our manufacturing sites worldwide. However, incidents can occur where small amounts of non-hazardous waste are sent to landfill in error or because of operational changes e.g. acquisitions or supplier issues. We consider ZWL is maintained when less than 0.5% of non-hazardous waste is disposed to landfill in the 12-month period.

†Independently assured by PwC

Going beyond zero waste to landfill

Reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging

By 2025 all of our plastic packaging will be designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable.

We continue to explore solutions to make our products recyclable and reusable whilst eliminating problematic materials. In support of our transparency efforts, we will publish the full ‘palette’ of plastic materials we use in our packaging by 2020. We are defining a metric to measure and report progress against our 2025 commitment.

Our Perspective

To help deliver our plastic packaging commitments we have developed an internal framework: Less Plastic, Better Plastic, No Plastic.

Better plastic is about making our products recyclable and eliminating problematic materials. We are working with a range of stakeholders and industry partners to advance our efforts in this area. For instance, we are working with masterbatch suppliers in Europe to develop detectable black colourants to enable black plastic to be recycled. We’ve also partnered with Ioniqa and Indorama Ventures to pioneer a new technology which converts polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste back into virgin grade material for use in food packaging.

We believe that transparency and disclosure of our plastic packaging footprint is key to unlocking some of the barriers we face. We will publish the full ‘palette’ of plastic materials we use in our packaging by 2020. We hope this will be a catalyst to improve transparency across the industry, drive convergence on certain materials and highlight the challenges we collectively need to overcome.

As part of this process we have been developing a robust metric to measure, and report progress against, our commitment to make 100% of our plastic packaging fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. We have made good progress but there is more work to do before we publish the final number. We’ve taken a strict view on the definition of ‘reusable and recyclable’. For instance, materials like coloured PET are not defined as recyclable in our metric because globally there are not established, proven examples of it being commercially viable for plastic re-processors to recycle the material.

We recognise the importance of recycling but we know it’s not the only solution. We are determined to reduce our use of single-use plastics by investing in alternative models of consumption which harness refills and reusable packaging (Less Plastic) as well as alternative packaging solutions that do not use plastic at all (No Plastic).


Rethinking plastic packaging – towards a circular economy

Reduce packaging

By 2020 we will reduce the weight of packaging that we use by one third through:

  • Lightweighting materials
  • Optimising structural and material design
  • Developing concentrated versions of our products
  • Eliminating unnecessary packaging

The weight per consumer use has decreased by 18% in 2018 compared to 2010.

Our Perspective

Our results show that our efforts in the last few years to reduce packaging through innovations, lightweighting and material switching are now becoming visible. The results are also impacted by the effect of acquisitions and disposals.

Commercialising MuCell™ moulding technology has allowed us to reduce the plastic component in bottles by up to 15% versus the previous bottle. We estimate that this will bring significant reductions in the amount of plastics we use once applied to other products. Other examples of reduction initiatives include the use of compression injection technology in many of our tubs, conversion of bottles to flexible refill pouches and smart use of design strategy and technology enabling us to reduce layers within many of our sachets.

Rethinking plastic packaging – towards a circular economy

Recycle packaging

  • Working in partnership with industry, governments and NGOs, we aim to increase recycling and recovery rates on average by 5% by 2015 and by 15% by 2020 in our top 14 countries. For some this means doubling or even tripling existing recycling rates. We will make it easier for consumers to recycle our packaging by using materials that best fit the end-of-life treatment facilities available in their countries.

Around 9% increase in recycling and recovery rates in 2018, over the 2010 average Recycling and Recovery Index (RRI), averaged across our top 14 countries.

  • By 2025 we will increase the recycled plastic material content in our packaging to 25%. This will act as a catalyst to increase recycling rates.

Around 4,845 tonnes of post-consumer recycled materials incorporated into our rigid plastic packaging in 2018.

Our Perspective

Recycling and recovery is a challenging target because we are reliant on public policy, infrastructure and consumer engagement. Despite this, we have seen an improvement in our recycling rate. The volume of materials recycled or recovered increased by around 9% over 2017-2018 compared to our 2010 baseline.

We want to use far more PCR plastic in the future and recapture our own packaging. The biggest challenge is the limited availability of high-quality recycled waste materials (owing to a high demand on the market), particularly in developing and emerging markets. To address this, we have been working with others to tackle wider infrastructural issues such as local collection and sorting facilities and to build the technical and commercial viability of reprocessing them at scale. As a result, we have opened many new PCR sources during 2018.

We expect our use of PCR materials to accelerate rapidly over the next few years as the design processes begin to deliver at scale. This will help us achieve our global commitment to include at least 25% recycled content in our plastic packaging by 2025.

Rethinking plastic packaging – towards a circular economy

Tackle sachet waste

Our goal is to develop and implement a sustainable business model for handling our sachet waste streams by 2015.

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We continue to investigate the potential of new technologies in both developed and developing markets. Progress has been slower than we originally anticipated, however we feel that we are two thirds of the way there and will have a viable solution in the near future.

Our Perspective

Our aim is to develop a closed loop system for sachet waste. This will allow us to continue to provide the price and convenience of sachets to low-income consumers, while tackling the environmental issues associated with their use. These include litter and recyclability.

Over the last eight years, we have co-developed a new technology using a chemical process called CreaSolv® Recycling technology. The technology produces quality polymers that can be used to make plastic that can be used again and again – offering the potential for a circular economy model. We have proven through large scale industrial trails that CreaSolv® Recycling technology is a technically viable solution to recycling sachets.

Our pilot plant in Indonesia, opened in 2018, is the only facility in the world where this technology is being used to recycle sachets. It can process three tonnes of material a day. Once we've proved the technical and commercial viability of the technology, our ambition is to start discussions with investors and other interested parties to develop a full-scale commercial plant, capable of processing around 30 tonnes of material a day.

Alongside an infrastructure for collecting and processing sachets – which we are also working on with other municipal governments – CreaSolv® Recycling technology offers the potential for a circular economy model and is a win-win for business and the environment. We hope that CreaSolv® Recycling technology will transform sachets from a global problem into a sustainable economic opportunity.

Rethinking plastic packaging – towards a circular economy

Eliminate PVC

We will eliminate PVC (polyvinyl chloride) from all packaging by 2012 (where technical solutions exist).

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99% of PVC packaging removed from our portfolio by end 2012.

Our Perspective

We have made very good progress in eliminating PVC from our packaging, including from the acquisitions we have made in recent years.

We have a robust system in place to ensure that any PVC entering the business through acquisitions is swiftly dealt with.

Reduce office waste

  • In our top 21 countries, at least 90% of our office waste will be reused, recycled or recovered by 2015 and we will send zero waste to landfill by 2017.

100% of our office waste was reused, recycled or recovered and we sent zero waste to landfill in our top 21 countries in 2017.

  • By 2015 we will reduce paper consumption by 30% per head in our top 21 countries.

We achieved our target in 2013 with paper consumed per occupant 37% lower than 2010. In 2016 we reached a 62% reduction against our 2010 baseline.

  • We will eliminate paper in our invoicing, goods receipt, purchase order processes, financial reporting and employee expense processing by 2015, where legally allowable and technically possible.
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By 2015, 73% of our in-scope Business and Finance Services processes were completed electronically.

Our Perspective

By the end of 2017, we achieved our target of zero waste to landfill at our in-scope sites in our top 21 countries. We have extended our waste reduction efforts beyond our top 21 countries and an additional 33 sites are now zero waste to landfill.

Paper consumption per occupant is 62% lower than our 2010 baseline in our top 21 countries and we will continue to push consumption lower.

Although 73% of our in-scope transactions (excluding financial reporting and employee expense processes) were completed electronically in 2015, subsequent progress has been challenging. Some countries do not yet allow electronic invoicing and we have found there is still a reluctance amongst some suppliers to accept e-invoicing. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to eliminating paper in our business and financial services processes.


Reducing office impacts
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