translated from Spanish: Unilever in Mexico promotes circular plastic economy

Just as it did globally, Unilever committed to taking action in Mexico to reduce its environmental footprint and boost the generation of a circular plastics economy.
Among the commitments of this company with more than 60 years of operations in the country highlights that by 2025, all its packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable for which they will develop innovations that allow the reuse, filling or composting of them.
The company also established that over the next five years they will increase the use of recycled plastic contained in their packaging by at least 25% by employing and incorporating recovered and recycled plastics into their packaging.
Another commitment made on Thursday is to reduce the use of virgin plastic by 50% and accelerate the use of multipurpose, reusable, refillable packaging and innovation of unpackaged products.
By 2025, Unilever is committed to helping to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells, investing and making partnerships to improve waste management infrastructure, as well as purchasing recycled plastics for use in packaging Unilever.
Finally, circular economy education will be supported through educational programs and platform to contribute to the social and economic development of collecting communities in Mexico, promoting best waste collection practices for their supporting the education of children and young people, on the importance and benefits of the circular economy.
With these actions, Unilever recognizes the need in Mexico to move from a linear scheme in the management of waste to “take, use, dispose” to a circular model that keeps plastic within the economy and outside the environment.
“There is no political or commercial argument to justify the lack of action on climate change. At Unilever we agree with the overall vision set by the UN on how to move from a linear consumption model to a fully circular one. We are ready to do our part and proof of this are the commitments we are planning today as a company to promote a waste-free Mexico” shared Reginaldo Ecclissato, president of Unilever Mexico and the Caribbean.
These commitments add to other actions taken by Unilever in Mexico, since 2017 the company’s four plants operate with 100% renewable energy, in addition to collaborating hand with ECOCE in its goal of recovering one hundred percent of PET packaging.
Unilever’s commitments to Mexico were signed on Thursday at an event in the Senate attended by Ecoce’s CEO Jorge Treviño, who reiterated the need to drive a circular economy in waste management such as PET.
Meanwhile, Senator Raúl Bolaños, chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, argued that Unilever’s commitments are alienated by UN sustainable development goals.
“We are at a key moment to be able to discuss and discuss agreements on sustainability, this is no longer part of the agenda of the future, but of the present and that is why we must take real action to join the global debate and incentivize that Mexico is a country with much more social inclusion,” the lawmaker said.
 

Original source in Spanish