Unilever tackles personal care packaging waste with refill solutions

Unilever is cutting plastic waste by introducing refill initiatives for beauty products. The manufacturing company spotlights the Indonesian, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi markets to indicate its successes and challenges in scaling reusable packaging models.

Unilever says that since 2018, it has tested more than 50 refills and reuse pilots globally. Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have incorporated various refillable personal care product initiatives in the last five years, working with local communities and Transform companies — a joint venture between Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, and EY that supports “innovative SMEs providing market-based solutions to key environmental challenges, including plastic pollution.”

Refill machines across Asia

In 2020, Unilever installed a refill machine in a packaging-free store in Jakarta, Indonesia. The machine stocked home and personal care brands like Doven, Rinso, and Tresemme. In addition, it installed two digital machines in an apartment building and a general trade kiosk. 

A second pilot involved motorcyclists selling products door-to-door straight from plastic containers. Unilever says this was a more popular solution, but operational costs made it inefficient to scale up. Working with Alner, a Transform company, it combined the two initiatives by introducing scalable manual refill stations in local stores, and waste banks across the country. 

Unilever estimates it caters to 6,000 customers at 1,000 refill stations, saving six metric tons of plastic annually. 

Simple self-service machines were added to general trade stores, leading to a 43% return rate among users.In 2019, two refill machines for personal care products from brands like Dove, Sunlight, and Sunsilk were installed in modern trade outlets in Sri Lanka. Unilever aimed to expand into general trade stores, which comprise 70% of the market, to reach lower-income customers who buy fewer products more regularly. The machines were redesigned to eliminate fixed product amounts so consumers could choose their own quantities, and placed in convenient locations like railways and apartments.

In 2021, Unilever tested self-service machines in Bangladesh but found them challenging to maintain due to repeated technical issues. After partnering with Bopinc, also a Transform company, they implemented a simpler machine in general trade stores, leading to a 43% return rate among users. 

Plastic waste targets

Unilever is working under the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, collaborating with peers like the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation “to agree on a common set of reuse definitions and metrics.” 

However, last April, CEO Hein Schumacher announced that Unilever would scale back or eliminate some environmental and social pledges. Greenpeace has noted on multiple occasions Unilever’s fluctuating position on the climate emergency, highlighting that in 2023, the manufacturing company reportedly produced 53 billion unrecyclable plastic sachets. 

Schumacher took the reins in the summer of 2023 and announced shortly thereafter that he would return the company to profitability by eliminating “non-core” assets and strategies.