NIGERIA – British-Dutch transnational consumer goods company, Unilever, has said it will eliminate over 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging by 2025.

Unilever, which produces brands including Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, Lipton and Omo  also revrealed that it intended to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells during the same period.

In a statement to newsrooms the company said, “By 2025, Unilever will halve its use of virgin plastic by reducing its absolute use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 tonnes and accelerating its use of recycled plastic.”

It added that this commitment made Unilever the first major global consumer goods company to commit to an absolute plastics reduction across its portfolio.

The company said it was on track to achieve its existing commitments to ensure all of its plastic packaging were reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

The company also revealed that it planned to use at least 25 per cent recycled plastic in its packaging, by 2025.

Unilever’s Chief Executive Officer, Alan Jope, said, “Plastic has its place, but that place is not in the environment. We can only eliminate plastic waste by acting fast and taking radical action at all points in the plastic cycle.”

He also noted that “Our starting point has to be by design, reducing the amount of plastic we use, and then making sure that what we do use increasingly comes from recycled sources.”

 “We are also committed to ensuring that all our plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable,” the Unilever boss added.

Jope noted that Unilever’s commitment “demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to our packaging and products.”

According to Jope, reducing plastic use and recycling more “requires us to introduce new and innovative packaging materials and scale up new business models, like re-use and re-fill formats, at an unprecedented speed and intensity.”

According to Unilever, this commitment would require the business to help collect and process around 600,000 tonnes of plastic annually by 2025.

The CEO said that Unilever’s commitment would be delivered through investment and partnerships which improve waste management infrastructure in many of the countries in which it operates.