Unilever invests $15M in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund

Unilever North America will invest $15 million in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund to help recycle an estimated 60,000 metric tons of U.S. plastic packaging annually by 2025. According to a news release from Closed Loop Partners about the investment, that commitment to recycle 60,000 metric tons of plastic packaging per year amounts to more than half of Unilever’s plastics footprint in North America. Unilever also plans to continue to use postconsumer resin (PCR) in its plastic packaging—it currently uses about 59,000 metric tons per year. The new commitment strengthens its goal to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells by 2025.

“We believe plastics’ place is inside the circular economy where it is reused, and not in the environment,” says Fabian Garcia, president of Unilever North America. “We’re advocating to transform the recycling system for a waste-free world, and we urgently need business investment to help make it happen.”

Unilever’s goal to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells is a part of its set of “waste-free world” commitments. According to Closed Loop Partners, those commitments include halving its use of virgin plastic; ensuring all of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable; and using at least 25 percent recycled plastic in its packaging.

“Unilever is a pioneer and leader when it comes to recognizing the economic, social and environmental value of embedding circular economy principles throughout their business, critically moving from ambitious commitments and goals to tangible action and progress,” says Ron Gonen, founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners. “Unilever’s investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund, in addition to its existing investment in our Infrastructure Fund, will help accelerate the shift toward more circular supply chains by scaling best-in-class circular business models and supporting the technological breakthroughs and sustainable innovations that keep valuable materials continuously cycling in manufacturing supply chains.”

Currently, half of the 118,000 metric tons of plastic packaging used by Unilever North America is made with PCR, and many of its brands, including Dove, Hellmann’s and Seventh Generation, already use 100-percent-PCR bottles. The investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund will help secure additional PCR plastics supply for Unilever brands and increase access to recycled plastic feedstock processed by the companies the fund invests in.

Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund is a private equity fund that acquires and grows companies across the value chain working to increase recycling and keep valuable materials in the circular economy and out of landfills.

Additionally, Unilever says it is advocating for producer responsibility legislation that would increase the broader investment needed from the industry to transform the recycling system. The company is working with consumer packaged goods companies through Closed Loop Partners’ Circular Economy Accelerators to promote a plan for brands to fund recycling infrastructure investments in the U.S. In Canada, Unilever North America participates in extended producer responsibility programs in provinces with established programs.