Unilever has eliminated non-hazardous waste to landfill across more than 600 sites in 70 countries. The international consumer goods company has said the achievement is a result of continuing with its four ‘R’ approach – reducing, reusing, recovering or recycling.
Unilever said that the accomplishment proves that waste can be used as a resource, “from converting factory waste to building materials, to composting food waste from staff cafeterias”. It also said that sustained efforts on zero waste result in a strong case for sustainability, because the elimination of waste has contributed to savings of €200million and created hundreds of jobs.
“The global challenge of a growing population relying on limited resources is very real,” said Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever chief supply chain officer.
“Our zero waste goal underpins Unilever’s sustainable growth ambitions, as well as our commitment to become resource resilient and tackle climate change.
“While I am proud of what our employees and partners have achieved across our manufacturing operations and the wider business, there is a lot more to be done to inspire a wide-scale movement.”
The company has also said it will now be collaborating with value-chain platform 2degrees to ‘help bring organisations together to leverage the zero waste model – it will go live in summer 2016.
“By building a network of partners and working together, we can eliminate waste on an unprecedented scale across the globe,” added Sigismondi.
