Unilever unveiled its new technology to recycle sachet waste. This technology, called CreaSolv® Process, has been developed with the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Germany and is inspired by an innovation used to recycle TV sets.
Hundreds of billions of plastic sachets are thrown away globally every year. Unilever has developed new technology to recycle sachets.
Today, only 14 percent of all plastic packaging is recycled globally. Unilever has pledged to make 100 percent of packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Billions of single use sachets are sold every year, particularly in developing and emerging markets. Sachets are extremely resource efficient and allow low income consumers to buy small amounts of products that would otherwise be unaffordable to them. But without a viable recycling option, sachet packaging ends up in landfills.
CreaSolv Process technology has been adapted from a method used to separate brominated flame retardants from waste electrical and electronic equipment polymers. During the process, the plastic is recovered from the sachet, and the plastic then used to create new sachets for Unilever products – creating a full circular economy approach.
Commenting, David Blanchard, Chief R&D Officer said, “Billions of sachets are used once and just thrown away, all over the world, ending up in landfill or in our waterways and oceans. At the start of this year we made a commitment to help solve this problem, developing new recycling technologies. We intend to make this tech open source and would hope to scale the technology with industry partners, so others – including our competitors – can use it.
“There is a clear economic case for delivering this. We know that globally $80 to 120 billion is lost to the economy through failing to properly recycle plastics each year. Finding a solution represents a huge opportunity. We believe that our commitment to making 100 percent of our packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable will support the long-term growth of our business.”
Unilever will open a pilot plant in Indonesia later this year to test the long term commercial viability of the technology. Indonesia is a critical country in which to tackle waste, producing 64 million tons every year.
To tackle the industry-wide sachet waste issue, Unilever is looking to create a sustainable system change by setting up waste collection schemes to channel the sachets to be recycled.
Published in the June 2017 Edition of American Recycler News