THE PROBLEM

Billions of single-use plastic sachets are sold every year, particularly in developing and emerging markets. Sachets allow low-income consumers to buy small amounts of products that would otherwise be unaffordable to them. But without a viable recycling solution, these sachets often end-up in the natural environment. 

THE SOLUTION

As part of its Sustainable Living Plan, Unilever has long been committed to finding an alternative to throwing sachets away. The 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.

The CreaSolv® Process produces recycled plastic containing virgin material properties. The solvent-based CreaSolv® Process effectively removes contaminants and additives that reduce the quality of the recycled plastic produced by conventional recycling processes. This means that a wide variety of very pure plastics can be recovered even if they are initially present in mixed plastic waste. The high quality of the recycled plastics enables their reutilization to manufacture plastic products.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLES

A number of plants designed to use the CreaSolv® Process are under construction. The first operational plant was commissioned in 2018 by Unilever in Indonesia. It recycles three metric tons of material per day.

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

See https://plasticsmartcities.org/collections/prevention-minimization/products/edible-packaging to learn more.