Circular Economy Circular Economy Collaboration & Co-Creation

Unilever Partners to Scale Circular Packaging Solutions in Global South

In partnership with EY and USAID, the CIRCLE Alliance collaborative model of enterprise acceleration will help scale new and existing solutions for packaging circularity in areas where plastic pollution is especially severe.

Published 3 months ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Unilever

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.