Consumer packaged goods company Unilever is selling 1,700 polluting plastic sachets per second, according to a new report by independent campaign organisation Greenpeace International.
The report, titled ‘UNCOVERED: Unilever’s complicity in the plastics crisis and its power to solve it’, explores the company’s role in tackling the plastic pollution crisis.
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The Greenpeace report found that Unilever is predicted to sell 53 billion of its sachets in 2023.
Last year, the company produced an estimated 6.4 billion sachets for its brand Dove, which accounted for more than 10% of its total sachets sales.
Field investigations by Greenpeace South East Asia and Greenpeace UK found images of Dove’s sachet waste polluting waterbodies in both the Philippines and Indonesia.
Greenpeace UK Plastics head Nina Schrank said: “Unilever really are pouring fuel on the fire of the plastic pollution crisis. Their brands like Dove are famous for telling the world they’re forces for good.
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By GlobalData“But they’re pumping out a staggering amount of plastic waste. It’s poisoning our planet, you can’t claim to be a ‘purposeful’ company whilst bearing responsibility for such huge pollution. Unilever has to change.”
In addition, Greenpeace research reveals that Unilever is set to miss its target of using less than 50% virgin plastic by nearly a decade.
The company is predicted to reach the target by 2034, compared to its previous goal of 2025.
Unilever has also been found to be too slow in its efforts to introduce refill and reuse solutions, with the environment organisation estimating the business to take beyond the year 3000 to make 100% of its products reusable.
In response to these findings, Greenpeace urged the company to take action to eliminate single-use plastic from its operations and switch to a reusable format within the next ten years.
The Ellen McArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment report in 2022 revealed that only 0.1% of Unilever’s plastic packaging is reusable.
