Unilever Adjusts Sustainable Plastic Goals as Industry Aspirations Meet Systemic Realities
London-based Unilever is resetting targets including virgin plastic reductions and increases in packaging that is recyclable, reusable or compostable. Based on a report last year from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on industry progress against goals to reduce plastic waste, Unilever will not be alone in having to recalibrate.
Unilever PLC, a leading force for greener industry practices, has announced it will not hit 2025 plastic waste reduction targets, set amid a flurry of industry-wide ESG goals established in the 2018–2020 timeframe.
In a Climate Transition Act Plan released last month and discussed in further detail during the London-based company’s first quarter sales presentation on April 25, the firm reported plans to reduce its virgin plastic footprint 30% by 2026 and 40% by 2028 versus 2019 baseline. That compares with an initial goal to slash the material 50% by 2025.
Additionally, the London-based marketer of Dove soap, Axe body sprays, TRESemme hair care and Vaseline skin care, in addition to home care, food and dietary supplement products, pushed back its target to make all of its packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, now aiming to do so by 2030 for rigid materials and 2035 for flexible material.
Unilever remains on track to deliver its 2025 targets for using 25% recycled plastic in packaging and collecting and processing more plastic packaging than it sells.
CEO and Director Hein Schumacher offered perspective on factors that led to 2025 target misses and how the company has reapproached its goals. “What we’ve done is we’ve specified the targets on plastic a bit more. So we have made over the last year considerable progress as a company. We’ve reduced our virgin plastic intake by 18%. We’ve increased the use of recycled plastic or PCR by 23% since our base year. And if you look at that comparably in the sector [this is] strong progress.”
He continued, “At the same time, when we work through this and we’re looking at the targets that we have for 2025 and 2026, we simply saw a huge hockey stick in the next two to three years. So we’ve revisited those targets. We’ve brought them to a more realistic although still very, very ambitious target. And the reality on plastic is you cannot do this alone. It is not a matter [only] of money or investing, but it’s also driving systemic change.”
He pointed to movement in developing reusable and refillable packaging, “which could be a solution for single-use plastic solutions.” But “you need the cooperation of retailers, you need the cooperation of governments in terms of law change when it comes to food safety, et cetera.”
Unilever remains committed, Schumacher said, noting in April he attended negotiations of the United Nations treaty on plastic pollution in Ottawa on behalf of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty. Seen as “the most important climate deal since Paris,” the treaty could target cosmetic use of intentionally added nano-plastics — in addition to microplastics — as plastic pollution to eliminate. (Also see "Historic UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution Targets Cosmetic ‘Nano-Plastics’ at Zero-Draft Stage" – HBW Insight, March 4, 2024.)
While the pivot in focus leaves organizations with unmet pledges vulnerable to greenwashing backlash, early movers that successfully educate stakeholders, customers, and investors to the benefits of lifecycle assessment as an alternative sustainability metric will be better prepared.”
A resolution for the treaty was signed by the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022, with the goal of presenting a legally binding agreement signed by all 174 member countries in 2024, though the treaty will likely be signed in 2025.
“I worked with governments for a number of days to actually get that done,” Schumacher said. “So this is very important to us. But once again, we need to be realistic in what we can achieve and at the same time advocate for strong systemic change.
”Schumacher underscored that Unilever is not shying away from its overarching sustainability goals. “We are doubling down, not watering down. Doubling down in those areas that most materially impact the business and where a more focused approach will enable us to drive real change at scale. And we are doing so with goals that are stretching but that are also intentionally and unashamedly realistic.”
Unilever also has been outspoken in its support of regulated extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, in which companies pay for and manage the collection and processing of packaging. In the US, state registration deadlines are approaching. In California, Oregon, and Colorado, companies considered producers of single-use packaging must register with the leading product responsibility organization (PRO) overseeing EPR administration by July 1, 2025. (Also see "Beauty Packaging Producers: July Marks Registration Deadline with PRO in 3 States" – HBW Insight, April 18, 2024.)
INDUSTRY PROGRESS REPORT
Many of the aggressive targets consumer products companies set in the 2018–2020 period were prompted by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment — launched in October 2018 in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program — which galvanized 1,000 companies to join in advancing “a common vision of a circular economy for plastics.”
In its Global Commitment Progress Report 2023, published in October 2023, the foundation provides an update on how companies — including packaging producers and users, raw material producers, and governments that committed to certain targets — are faring.
In the area of virgin plastic reduction, the foundation notes that brands and retailers in aggregate targeted a 21% reduction in virgin plastic use between 2018 and 2025. The majority of brand and retailers (65%) have reduced their virgin plastic packaging since 2018, with the top quartile collectively reducing it by 13%, the foundation says.
Of the brand and retailer group that have set plastic reduction targets (versus doing away with all plastics) 27% are on track or have already achieved their targets, according to the report. However, “assuming a continuation along this trajectory, the group as a whole remains off track to deliver their reduction target of -21%,” it says.
Progress on ensuring 100% of plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable is bleaker. In the report, the foundation notes that brand and retail signatories’ share of reusable, recyclable and compostable plastic packaging has increased only 2 points since 2018. “Following a two-year increase, brand and retail signatories marginally decreased the share of reusable, recyclable, and compostable plastic packaging: from 65.4% in 2021 to 64.5% in 2022,” the report notes.
“The 2025 target of 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging will almost certainly be missed by most organizations,” the foundation says.
The Procter & Gamble Company, whose portfolio includes Pantene and Head & Shoulders hair care, Olay skin care and Crest oral care, set a goal for 100% of its consumer packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2030. It also set out to reduce use of virgin petroleum plastic in consumer packaging by 50% per unit of production (vs. 2017 baseline) and to send zero manufacturing waste to landfill.
The firm’s website provides progress for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, noting 78% of consumer packaging is designated to be recyclable or reusable, and it has reduced use of virgin plastic by 13%. The company says it achieved its zero manufacturing waste to landfill target in 2020 and has maintained it.
Since 2018, French company L’Oréal SA has committed to reducing by 33% its use of virgin plastic and eliminating problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging in its products by 2025. At the end of 2022, the company had reduced virgin plastic by 6.2%, and 38.3% of its packaging was reuseable, recyclable or compostable.
In early 2023, technological research and consulting firm Gartner, Inc. predicted that with most public commitments to sustainable packaging at risk of going unfulfilled, 20% of organizations will shift their focus from recycling and eliminating plastics to reducing the carbon footprint of packaging by 2026.
“The packaging ecosystem has not advanced at the pace that organizations setting targets back in 2017 and 2018 had hoped for,” said John Blake, senior director analyst with Gartner’s supply chain practice, in a January 2023 post to the Stamford, Conn.-based firm’s website.
“Organizations face operational and financial challenges that were discovered only through the attempt to deliver their goals, but meaningful progress on sustainability can still be made with more realistic frameworks in place.”
Increased interest and goal setting around reusable and refillable packaging was addressed at the Independent Beauty Association’ Supply Chain and Sustainability Conference in November. Richie Rubin, executive VP of Garcoa Laboratories, Inc., suggested industry must pursue “some serious innovation in the form of industrial hygiene specific to reusing” products to avoid contamination. (Also see "Refillable Personal-Care Packaging: Experts Discuss Contamination Risks, Liability, MoCRA Compliance" – HBW Insight, Dec. 5, 2023.)
Blake said companies shifting focus to reducing carbon footprint must relay the right message. “While the pivot in focus leaves organizations with unmet pledges vulnerable to greenwashing backlash, early movers that successfully educate stakeholders, customers and investors to the benefits of lifecycle assessment as an alternative sustainability metric will be better prepared to address and defend their contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”
