Consumer goods giant Unilever, whose brands include Dove and Ben & Jerry's, has vowed to halve its use of new plastic by 2025.
On Monday, the company announced a commitment to reduce the amount of non-recycled plastic in its packaging by 50%, with more than one third of that "coming from an absolute plastic reduction." It plans to achieve this by offering more reusable and refillable packaging; using more recycled plastic; and reducing the amount of plastic in packaging overall. Unilever also said it will collect and process roughly 600,000 tons of plastic a year by 2025.
If everything goes according to plan, Unilever says it will use no more than 386,000 tons of new plastic each year starting in 2025, down from around 772,000 tons in 2018. This builds on the company's previous pledge to make all of its plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
Unilever CEO Alan Jope said: "There is a lot of plastic pollution in the environment. And the fact of the matter is — too much of it carries our name. Our vision is a world in which everyone works together to ensure that plastic stays in the economy and out of the environment. This is a daunting but exciting task which will help drive global demand for recycled plastic."
