UNILEVER
Consumer goods giant joins scheme to turn post-consumer packaging waste into food-grade rPP
 Nextloopp aims to use the circular rPP in consumer products and cosmetics (Photo: NextLoopp) |
Unilever (London / UK; www.unilever.com) has signed up to Nextloopp, an ambitious scheme developed by environmental consultancy Nextek (London / UK; www.nextek.org) to create food-grade recycled polypropylene from post-consumer packaging waste.
Nextloopp said its vision is to use this circular rPP in consumer products and cosmetics. Around 210,000 t/y of PP used in the UK is food-grade packaging, according to Nextloopp, “and yet no food-grade recycled PP is currently available for re-use into new packaging. To date, one of the main barriers to unlocking PP’s huge potential has been a lack of technology and a reduced infrastructure to produce food-grade recycled PP”.
Sanjeev Das, global packaging director at Unilever’s foods and refreshment division, said his firm supported the advancement of mechanical recycling infrastructure to produce food-grade rPP to complement other technology routes. “Unlocking the mechanical recycling route to produce food-grade rPP will help boost our efforts to keep plastics in a loop and out of the environment.”
Unilever said it had committed to halve the use of virgin plastic in its packaging and remove more than 100,000 t of plastic entirely by 2025 through its “Less, better, no” plastic framework as a guiding principle to drive transition towards a circular economy. At the company’s 2021 AGM, 99.56% of shareholders voted in favour of the Climate Transition Action Plan, which defines the steps the company will take to reduce emissions to zero for its own operations by 2030 and to net zero across the value chain by 2039 (see Plasteurope.com of 27.05.2021).
Welcoming its latest participant to Nextloopp, Edward Kosior, founder and chief executive of Nextek, said Unilever was “committed to bringing sustainability and circularity to its many products and is helping to overcome the significant challenge of using high quality recycled PP in food-contact applications”.
The 33 participants in the Nextloopp project include Viridor (Taunton / UK; www.viridor.co.uk), Recoup (Peterborough / UK; www.recoup.org) and Danone (Paris / France; www.danone.com).
Nextloopp said its vision is to use this circular rPP in consumer products and cosmetics. Around 210,000 t/y of PP used in the UK is food-grade packaging, according to Nextloopp, “and yet no food-grade recycled PP is currently available for re-use into new packaging. To date, one of the main barriers to unlocking PP’s huge potential has been a lack of technology and a reduced infrastructure to produce food-grade recycled PP”.
Sanjeev Das, global packaging director at Unilever’s foods and refreshment division, said his firm supported the advancement of mechanical recycling infrastructure to produce food-grade rPP to complement other technology routes. “Unlocking the mechanical recycling route to produce food-grade rPP will help boost our efforts to keep plastics in a loop and out of the environment.”
Unilever said it had committed to halve the use of virgin plastic in its packaging and remove more than 100,000 t of plastic entirely by 2025 through its “Less, better, no” plastic framework as a guiding principle to drive transition towards a circular economy. At the company’s 2021 AGM, 99.56% of shareholders voted in favour of the Climate Transition Action Plan, which defines the steps the company will take to reduce emissions to zero for its own operations by 2030 and to net zero across the value chain by 2039 (see Plasteurope.com of 27.05.2021).
Welcoming its latest participant to Nextloopp, Edward Kosior, founder and chief executive of Nextek, said Unilever was “committed to bringing sustainability and circularity to its many products and is helping to overcome the significant challenge of using high quality recycled PP in food-contact applications”.
The 33 participants in the Nextloopp project include Viridor (Taunton / UK; www.viridor.co.uk), Recoup (Peterborough / UK; www.recoup.org) and Danone (Paris / France; www.danone.com).
02.07.2021 Plasteurope.com [247987-0]
Published on 02.07.2021
German version of this article...