Unilever Partners to Scale Circular Packaging Solutions in Global South

Unilever has joined USAID and EY to launch the CIRCLE Alliance — a $21
million public-private collaboration to scale solutions that reduce plastic use
and tackle plastic waste.

The initiative aims to support entrepreneurs and small businesses across the
plastics value chain to scale solutions that reduce plastic use, tackle plastic
waste and build thriving circular economies in developing areas. It has a
particular focus on the economic empowerment of women, who make up the majority
of waste collectors working in the informal sector in the Global South.

Packaging is vital for the consumer goods business; but the link between
packaging and plastic
pollution
is now undeniable. It’s one of the world’s most prolific environmental polluters
— which is why Unilever identified plastic as one of four core sustainability
priorities in its Growth Action
Plan.

To tackle its contribution to plastic pollution, the company says it has reduced
its virgin plastic use by 18 percent against a 2019 baseline; increased its use
of recycled plastic to 22 percent of its global portfolio; and trialed a variety
of reuse and refill
models
around the world. It continues to further its efforts to end plastic pollution
through reduction, circulation and collaboration.

“CIRCLE’s collaborative model of enterprise acceleration – delivered through a
mix of grant funding and bespoke business support – will help scale both new and
existing solutions for packaging circularity, whether that’s driving collection
and recycling or reuse-refill
models,”
says Rebecca Marmot,
Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Crucially, it will support many small
to medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs that offer impactful,
market-based
solutions
but are currently too small to work at the scale we need.”

CIRCLE Alliance’s efforts will initially focus on India, Indonesia, the
Philippines and Vietnam — with a plan to expand to other markets by
bringing in new organizations with additional funds to invest. It builds on
approaches developed by impact enterprise accelerator
TRANSFORM — which is led by Unilever; EY; and
the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

At the launch of the initiative during Capitol Hill Ocean
Week in June, USAID
Administrator Samantha Power
said: “The CIRCLE Alliance brings together USAID’s experience in empowering
women
in plastic waste value chains and our long-standing relationships with national
and local governments – and of course, with civil society. Unilever has
unrivaled knowledge of, and an unrivaled role in, plastic supply chains. EY
brings experience in providing professional support to help businesses grow and
thrive. This is an incredible foundation for the CIRCLE Alliance.”

From reactive, to proactive, solutions

The recent, third edition of the Circulate Initiative’s Plastics
Circularity Investment
Tracker
highlighted that a significant shift in priorities is needed for effectively
tackling the plastic-pollution crisis: Not only is the average US$32 billion
a year privately invested in plastics circularity solutions far below the
US$1 trillion needed, too many of those funds go toward reactive solutions
(such as
recovery and recycling)
vs proactive, preventative solutions (such as
redesign
and
refill and reuse);
and emerging markets received only 6 percent of investments, despite the
greater impact of plastic
pollution
in these economies. It echoed the findings of a 2023 Circle Economy report
that called out a strong Global North
bias
in circular-economic job opportunities and interventions, as well as research in
this area.

Unilever joins fellow consumer-goods giants including The Body
Shop,
Dow,
Estée Lauder
Companies
and SC
Johnson
and collaboratives such as NextWave
Plastics
in broadening their strategies to include securing the livelihoods of informal
waste workers and communities in the Global South; but far greater attention and
investment is needed.

For its part, Unilever says it is working to transform the way its products are
made and the fate of materials at end of life by investing in projects that
drive systemic change and collaborating with partners and co-financiers to scale
solutions. It has also contributed to Circulate Capital’s Ocean
Fund
to support better investment and infrastructure in areas where the effects of
ocean plastic pollution are particularly acute — including South and
Southeast Asia and Latin
America.

“Responding to the urgent need for collective action to enable a circular
economy for plastics across the global south, the CIRCLE Alliance represents a
bold model of public–private collaboration,” says Gillian
Hinde, Global Corporate
Responsibility Leader at EY. “Together, we aim to support impact entrepreneurs
as they incubate innovation and scale market-based solutions to the issue of
plastic pollution, while generating jobs that respect waste workers’ human
rights
— especially women.”

Seeking additional partners

The founding partners looking for more organizations to join the CIRCLE Alliance
— contact Laurie Pickard, Chief of Party
for CIRCLE Alliance implementing partner
Resonance, to learn more.