Unilever Australia received the APC award for Outstanding Achievement in Recycling. As a consistent high performing APC signatory, Unilever Australia has been committed to packaging sustainability, waste reduction and education campaigns to help increase recycling rates in Australia. Unilever’s goal to decouple environmental impact and business growth while increasing its positive social impact are governed by its Sustainable Living Plan (2010).
Redesigning the 500ml Lipton Ice Tea bottle saved 343 tonnes of PET and 60 tonnes of polypropylene each year.
Key Achievements
- In 2015 Unilever achieved its goal of zero non-hazardous waste sent to landfill across its manufacturing networks, warehouses and offices in Australia
- Redesigned the 500ml Lipton Ice Tea bottle, saving 343 tonnes of PET and 60 tonnes of polypropylene a year
- Removed the foil wrapping from Lipton Black Tea bags saving an estimated 41 tonnes of material a year
- Created shorter ice-cream sticks for popular products like Gaytime & Paddle Pop, saving 16 tonnes of wood annually
Key Actions
Reducing, reusing, recovering or recycling waste across its Australian operations through upcycling packaging materials, converting factory waste into soil and compost as well as using organic waste for green energy generation- Redesigning the packaging of Lipton Ice Tea and Black Tea bags
- Returning materials such as cardboard boxes and plastic rewind cores to suppliers for reuse
- Developing guidelines that allowed Unilever to work with packaging engineers to design sustainable packaging materials
“While we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last few years we know there is still more to do to inspire a wide-scale movement and create a brighter future for our planet. Resource sustainability and eliminating waste are among our biggest global challenges and tackling these issues is not only the right thing to do but it also makes business sense. We’d like to see more businesses across Australia to commit to a zero waste model and work towards packaging solutions that will enable us to be more resource efficient. Collaboration is key to tackling these unprecedented challenges.”
Clive Stiff Chairman & CEO Unilever Australia & New Zealand“
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