FDBusiness.com

Unilever has unveiled reusable packaging innovations across nine of its brands, including four new product formats. The new products will be trialled on Loop™, a global, first-of-its-kind, waste-free shopping system.

Bringing together a coalition of consumer goods companies, along with international recycling leader TerraCycle, Loop™ is an innovative new business model for premium durable packaging which is delivered directly to the consumer, returned and refilled. The platform also offers the opportunity to work with others at scale to test reuse models and shift consumer behaviour, which will help make circular packaging systems commercially viable.

Premium skincare brand REN Clean Skincare, Hellmann’s, Love Beauty and Planet, Love Home and Planet and Seventh Generation will trial new reusable packaging made from aluminium and glass.

Unilever’s participation in Loop™ complements its existing efforts to create a plastic system that works and a packaging system that is truly circular by design. In 2017, Unilever committed to all of its plastic packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Good progress has been made against these targets, with absolute packaging volumes flat since 2010, despite the business growing significantly over this period. However, Unilever is determined to further reduce its use of single-use plastics.

Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever said: “We want to put an end to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ culture and are committed to taking big steps towards designing our products for re-use. We’re proud to be a founding partner of Loop, which will deliver our much-loved brands in packaging which is truly circular by design.”