Unilever reaches ‘essential’ new zero waste to landfill milestone
The Anglo-Dutch giant set out its ambition to do so at the start of the year when it achieved zero non-hazardous waste to landfill across its global network of 242 factories in 67 countries.
The goal set at the time was to become a zero waste company and Unilever says that its European operation is the first to meet this new target with 63 additional facilities now sending no waste to landfill; with the global result expected by the end of the year, as well as working towards eliminating waste across our entire value chain.
“Our zero waste to landfill goal is essential to Unilever’s sustainable growth ambitions and we aspire to see industry-wide movement here,” says Unilever’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, Pier Luigi Sigismondi.
“Our European teams have reached an important new milestone and proven that the model and mind-set that drove our factory achievements is repeatable outside of a manufacturing environment.”
Important issue
According to Unilever, every year, an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected worldwide and this is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025, with almost all of that increase coming from developing countries.
Decay of solid waste also contributes 5% of global greenhouse gases, meaning that to relieve the pressures on the planet’s finite resources, it is of great importance to prevent waste.
For Unilever, this announcement is all part of its ongoing Sustainable Living Plan, which set a goal in 2010 to halve the environmental footprint of the making and use of its products by 2020.
The company has a strong track record on designing out waste and since 2012, when zero waste to landfill was added as a Unilever Sustainable Living Plan target, the Dove skin care maker has focused on embedding a ‘zero waste mind-set’ to rapidly accelerate the speed of the global roll out programme, increase resource resilience and reach the target well ahead of schedule.
