Unilever: About 99% of our ice cream packaging is recyclable

Representatives of Unilever spoke about the holding's contribution to ecologization and noted that the plans include changing product formulations, improving supply chains and implementing programs for the rational use of water resources.

As part of one of the three directions of the Compass plan "Improving the health of the Planet" by 2030, the company plans to reduce emissions to zero in production and by half - throughout the production and household chain.

‘By 2030, Unilever will replace all carbon derived fr om fossil fuels in the formulation of cleaning products and laundry products with carbon derived from renewable sources. By 2023, the company will create a supply chain that does not lead to the destruction of forests, and by 2030, programs for the rational use of water resources will be implemented in 100 regions of the world suffering from water scarcity. By the same year, Unilever will replace the ingredients with 100% biodegradable,’ comments the press service of the company.

Another commitment is to help protect and restore 1.5 million hectares of land, forests and oceans – Unilever is already implementing a number of initiatives in this direction both locally and globally, added in the press service.

According to representatives of Unilever, production centers in St. Petersburg, Tula region and Yekaterinburg have been using 100% renewable wind power since December 2018, covering the needs of the company's production. The electricity generated by the wind power plants of the Finnish Energy Corporation Fortum in Ulyanovsk region enters the wholesale electricity market and then, along with the energy obtained by other methods, provides consumers with a resource. Since September 2019, the Unilever ice cream factory in Omsk has been operating on a similar principle – electricity is supplied there from the solar power plants of the Russian energy company Hevel Solar. 

The brand Chistaya Liniya, in partnership with the Forest Volunteering Resource Center, launched the program “Living Forests of Russia”. During this time, the brand has taken care of more than 600 thousand trees. Globally, the brand Dove plans to restore 20,000 hectares of forest in Indonesia as part of The Dove Forest Restoration project. The project will be implemented with the support of the Climate and Nature Fund of Unilever. 

Unilever will also make efforts to combat the amount of plastic: by 2025, the company plans to continue its work to reduce the volume of primary plastic used by 50% and reduce the volume of plastic packaging used by more than 100 thousand tons. By 2025, all plastic used in the packaging of goods will be recyclable or compostable. 

‘As a manufacturing company, we strive not only to introduce environmental initiatives into our business processes, but also to systematically promote sustainable practices among our suppliers and partners. For example, Unilever has a Code of Business Principles, based on which we undertake to cooperate only with those suppliers who conduct their activities taking into account the principles of sustainable development and reduce their impact on the environment. We purchase green energy from companies such as Fortum and Hevel Solar. Thus, we are not just reducing our own carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, but also generally supporting renewable energy in Russia,’ explained in the press service of Unilever.

The experts of the company stressed that in order to make changes to the system that exists in the world today, every person, every company should start with itself and understand wh ere it can not only reduce the negative impact from its side, but also bring more benefits. Therefore, by creating demand for green energy sources, supporting the development of infrastructure for packaging processing, saving water and offering consumers to participate in socially significant brand initiatives, Unilever is trying to make its own contribution to ecologization of the industry.

This can be facilitated by maintaining a reduction coefficient to the utilization standard, calculated as the difference between the unit and the share of secondary raw materials used in the production of the specified packaging:

‘Yes, consumers are increasingly paying attention to the company's activities in the field of sustainable development and prefer to buy products that do not harm the planet. According to Unilever, in Europe, sales of brands based on "green agenda" are growing 69% faster than the rest of the products in the portfolio. Thus, according to PWC data for 2020, 55% of consumers buy products from companies with a clearly defined policy in the field of environmental protection, and 54% prefer products in eco-friendly packaging. A Deloitte study showed that 63% of respondents pay attention to the biodegradable packaging of cosmetic products and 75% to the label that the product is environmentally friendly, the Unilever press service cited research data.

At the same time, added the representatives of the company, young people pay much more attention to the planet - young people most often prefer the products of responsible brands. It is important not only to support them on this path, but also to help them figure out which labels really show the responsible activity of brands, and which are greenwashing. 

In this matter, the press service continued, it is important to evaluate not only their activities, but also the impact of the industry as a whole. According to the Accounting Chamber, only 7% of waste is recycled. As for plastic itself, the HSE study showed that only 12% reaches recycling. At the same time, only plastic bottles can be processed in Russia so far, therefore, PET containers make up 42% of 12%. There are two types - PET 1 bottle, which can be recycled, and PET 1 non-bottle (jars of cosmetics, shampoos, detergents, takeaway food, household chemicals), which requires a special infrastructure. Because of these difficulties, no recycler takes the second type of plastic for recycling yet.

‘We have recently launched a pilot project to collect cosmetic and household plastic. As part of it, 30 containers were installed in Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg. With the help of containers, buyers will be able to transfer plastic bottles, vials and jars of cosmetics and household chemicals with a volume of up to two liters and labeled 1PET/PETE/PET/PETF for recycling,’ said in Unilever.

The cosmetic brand "Chistaya Liniya", which is part of the company's portfolio, has installed 15 fandomats in the X5 store chain to collect plastic, which is then sent for recycling. In the period from August 2019 to August 2021, fandomats collected more than 70,500 units of plastic packaging, and the collection continued even during the self-isolation regime.

‘We understand that such initiatives rather serve the purpose of educating consumers and supporting their eco-habits, and their results may not be as large-scale as we would like. Therefore, we try to conduct a dialogue not only with our consumers, but also with our partners- retailers, processors, government authorities and other market players. The latter will allow creating collaborations that will improve the efficiency of plastic collection and processing,’ commented the representatives of the company on the need to consolidate industries to solve common problems.

An equally important aspect, stressed in the press service, is the creation of technologies and support for innovations in the field of recycled plastic:

‘We try to develop them in all categories of our business. So, almost 99% of the packaging of our ice cream is suitable for processing, 90% in the category of household chemicals, and more than 86% is suitable for processing in the category of cosmetic products. In the summer of 2021, we announced the completion of the development and launch of fabric masks in packaging suitable for recycling. The first products in the company's portfolio were Dove masks. In total, there are four types of masks in the line, three of which are also produced using biodegradable fabric. The Russian division of the company, together with the manufacturers of flexible materials "Danaflex-NANO" and "Avangard", have developed packaging, all layers of which consist of one material - polypropylene. The new version of the multilayer packaging does not contain an aluminum layer and at the same time retains the useful qualities of the cosmetic product throughout the shelf life. When recycled, the packaging of the mask can be recycled, and the base of the mask fabric will decompose in the soil in 30 days,’ summed up in Unilever.