Unilever’s promised cuts to plastic are welcome... but it’s still not enough
The IndependentUnilever, the consumer products giant with more brands than there are days in a year, has promised to halve its use of the stuff by 2025. As well as the 50 per cent reduction, and a promise of an absolute cut of 100,000 tonnes, there’s also a pledge to help collect and process more plastic packaging than the company sells by 2025, to share tech, and to use a lot more recycled and recyclable material. Unilever’s is more aggressive than, say, that of its rival Proctor & Gamble, which said it planned to halve plastic use by 2030, but the point remains. But it is concerned about Unilever’s “continued emphasis on collection, alternative materials, and recycled content” when it says there is a need for a “systemic shift required to solve the growing plastic pollution problem”. Still, while this is indeed, as Greenpeace says, a welcome step, it’s two cheers with the potential for a third if that innovative effort can make a serious, and provable, dent in what is rapidly moving from “serious problem” to “global crisis”.
History of this topic
Greenpeace block access to Unilever HQ in single-use plastics protest
The Independent
Greenpeace protesters scale Unilever headquarters in plastic pollution protest
The Independent
Unilever probed over green claims: Britain's wokest firm 'may have misled' customers
Daily Mail
CMA probes potential greenwashing of Unilever cleaning products
The Independent
Unilever under fire for selling billions of polluting plastic sachets
The Independent
'Can't just recycle our way out of plastic crisis,' say experts
Hindustan Times
Cleaning up: Unilever to eliminate fossil fuels from detergents
Al Jazeera
Unilever pledges to slash its use of new plastic by nearly 400,000 tons per year
CNN
Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and Nestle vow to cut all plastic waste in bid to tackle ocean pollution
The Independent
Unilever is safe from Kraft for now, but this isn't over
The Independent
Beauty brands pledge to end use of microbeads in their products
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