Unilever’s Domestos liquid bleach bottles have been fully recyclable for a while but adding recycled plastic to the bottles has been a challenge.
Unilever has re-launched the Domestos core 750ml bleach range, made in the UK, in new bottles made with 50% post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR). The new bottles use a high-quality recycled resin to ensure the bottle is strong and durable and also enables the incorporation of recycled plastic into the coloured bottles without compromising on the distinct colour and quality of the packaging.
This move is set to save 1,505 tonnes of virgin plastic per year, helping to further ‘close the loop’ on plastic by keeping it in Unilever’s packaging and out of the environment.
With plastic waste as the top environmental concern for British shoppers, Domestos aims to communicate the move to recycled plastic with new front-of-pack labelling. This is in addition to the On-Pack Recycling Label (ORPL) ‘Cap On Recycle’ logo on the back of pack which informs shoppers that bleach bottles can be recycled and aims to help boost recycling rates.
Claire Racklyeft, Home & Hygiene Category Lead, Unilever UK&I, commented, “Domestos has been protecting households against germs for over 90 years, and now we’re looking at how we can do this in a more sustainable way by tackling plastic waste too.”
“Our bottles are already recyclable but incorporating recycled plastic into a bottle made for bleach has been challenging, but our packaging team have worked very closely with our suppliers and partners to ensure consistency of material and bottle quality. We know it’s important to shoppers that big brands take action to tackle plastic waste, so we’re already working towards bottles made with 100% recycled plastic,” added Racklyeft.
Domestos’ re-launch progresses Unilever’s Global ‘Clean Future’ commitment, an innovation programme and €1 billion investment, designed by the company’s Home Care business unit to fundamentally change the way that cleaning and laundry products are created, manufactured and packaged.
Clean Future is unique in its intent to embed the circular economy principles into both packaging and product formulations at the scale of global brands to reduce their carbon footprint.
Increasing the use of recycled plastic in packaging is a key part of Unilever’s wider global packaging commitments, which include halving their use of virgin plastic as well as ensuring all their packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.