Consumer goods giant Unilever has set itself a number of targets to reduce plastic waste.
The company behind household brands such as Comfort, Cif and Dove publicly announced a series of fresh goals related to the material.
Unilever said it would slash its use of virgin plastic by 30 per cent by 2026, and 40 per cent two years later.
It also said it would ensure all its rigid plastic packaging was reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030, with flexible polymer-based protective material following suit by 2035.
The company aims for its packaging to be 25 per cent recycled by 2025 and to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells by the same date.
Unilever said it was making its packaging lighter and scaling alternative formats, materials and business models.
Pablo Costa, global head of packaging at the firm, said: “A large amount of plastic packaging is mismanaged and ends up in the environment. We recognise we’re part of that problem, so we’ve got to be part of the solution, too.”
He added: “We have updated our plastic goals to bring more focus and to double down on the key issues. Reducing our use of virgin plastic and developing alternatives for hard-to-recycle flexible plastic packaging materials, like plastic sachets, are priorities.”
