Unilever achieves >70% recyclable packaging in MENA region
In an announcement made by Unilever, the company reports its continued commitment to creating a waste free world with >70% of its packaging in the MENA region now being recyclable.
The achievement comes as part of a wide commitment made by the company to make its global plastic packaging 100% recyclable by 2025. In addition the company aims to achieve absolute plastic reduction across its portfolio.
In line with these commitments, Unilever (MENA) has implemented new packaging for a variety of products including Lipton tea bags becoming biodegradable.
“Plastic has its place, but that place is not in the environment. A throwaway culture and business models continue to dominate our lives and damage our planet. Despite today’s challenging conditions, we remain committed towards the implementation of a circular economy for packaging where it is reused, recycled, or composted. We aim to cut the amount of plastic we use, and rapidly transition to a circular economy to stop it from ever finding its way into the environment,” commented Sanjiv Kakkar, Executive Vice-President at Unilever MENA.
Across the entire MENA region, Unilever is striving to reduce its use of virgin plastic in its packaging, to enable the transition Unilever is developing local third-party capabilities for plastic collection and recycling, in addition to its agreement with Bee’ah in 2019 to ensure local post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) development.
In addition Unilever is providing support for entrepreneurs to develop new measures when it comes to plastics and plastics collection, as well as working with a range of partners in the MENA region for the design and deployment of producer responsibility schemes to help collect and process plastic packaging.
2019 saw Unilever become the first major consumer goods company to commit to absolute plastic reduction across its portfolio.
For more information on Unilever’s sustainability efforts, click here!
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