Plastic rocks on an isolated island
The sombre message of stones made of plastic found on an uninhabited island far from the Brazilian coast.
Will new Unilever CEO stop using sachets?
8 February 2023
Unilever sells countless products in individual small packaging, known as sachets or pouches. They are sold everywhere in low-income countries, can hardly be recycled, and pollute the land and the water. Counting of collected rubbish shows that Unilever brands are among the top polluters. On 1 July, Hein Schumacher of the Netherlands will become CEO of Unilever. He will also have to look at this case file.
Alan Jope, Schumacher’s predecessor, admitted that the sachets are ‘pretty much impossible to mechanically recycle’ and that they have ‘no real value’ as waste. However, he did not relate this to any negative effects. Under Jope, Unilever did not stop selling products in sachets. Will Schumacher do so?
UNILEVER IS THE CHAMPION IN ADDING TO THE PLASTIC SOUP
On the Indonesian island of Bali, thousands of Unilever packaging materials end up in rivers and flow out to sea. An organisation called Sungai Watch has been erecting barriers in rivers since 2020. The barriers collect plastic and the plastic is removed every day. Every piece of plastic is counted and analysed.
There are now 177 barriers and more than 900,000 kg of plastic has been collected. Unilever tops the list of the 10 largest polluters of sachets. Last year 50,078 sachets were collected, of which 5,091 (10%) were from Unilever brands. What Sungai Watch shows in Bali is not different elsewhere. Unilever, that works in 190 countries, is largely responsible for the plastic soup.
SCHUMACHER HAS A BAD TRACK RECORD
As CEO of FrieslandCampina, in 2018 Schumacher emphasised in an interview (in Dutch) the importance of ‘sustainable production and operations, not only for now, but also to create value for future generations’. FrieslandCampina also has operations in Indonesia and Frisian Flag (Susu Bendera) is one of the best known brands there. While FrieslandCampina promised (in Dutch) solutions to the problem of litter and sachets during an official trade mission to Indonesia in 2016, in the years thereafter the company – under the leadership of Schumacher – has done nothing. The sale of products in small polluting packaging continues unabated.
UNILEVER’S FAKE SOLUTION
Unilever too has promoted an image of sustainability for years. As a solution to the problem, Unilever points to CreaSolv, a new technology to recycle sachets. The multinational pledged that all their packaging will be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. But there is still much wrong with this technology in the pilot factory in Indonesia. And even if the technology would work, how would you bring all those used little sachets from one place, such as the island of Bali, to the factory? The problem was clearly described by The Guardian last year. Furthermore, a research report by Reuters shows that Unilever is actively lobbying behind the scenes against government measures designed to reduce the use of (small) plastic packaging.
It is now up to Schumacher to openly recognise the problem and stop fooling the world with fake solutions. Unilever needs to stop using sachets in the interest of the planet.
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